The Story of Us
by JinnySkeans
Summary: This love is difficult...but it's real. Sakura learns that growing up means saying goodbye, and learning how to begin again. Senior Year is going to change everything. Sasuke/Sakura AU
1. Last Kiss

Last Kiss

"Just promise me you won't get mad."

Kiba's voice was quelling, like he was doing damage control, and Sakura _hated_ it when he did that. Like he thought she was a live wire or something that needed to be handled delicately. Already, she disliked where the conversation was going, because Kiba seemed to have more and more to apologize for lately, but she tried to control her temper before giving Kiba a reason to be uneasy around her. She took a sip from her water bottle and set it back down on the bleachers before raising an eyebrow to show she was listening.

But she wouldn't promise not to get mad.

He chewed on his bottom lip, a nervous habit of his, before running a hand through his messy hair. He exhaled sharply through his nose and blurted out, "I fucked Ami."

Sakura blinked.

"It meant nothing," Kiba added quickly, his hands on her shoulders. The look in his brown eyes was shockingly repentant, given the nature of his crime against her and their one-year relationship. Sakura didn't move. "Seriously, it meant nothing, Sakura, I promise. It just…I don't fucking know, babe. It just kind of _happened._"

Sakura's anger and hurt rendered her completely stunned, and she barely managed to choke out, "When."

"After football camp last week," he muttered. His grip on her shoulders tightened like he was worried she was going to run off or something. As if she could will her frozen legs into moving, as if she could focus on anything but the sweltering summer heat, the blazing summer sun, and the way it felt like her heart was cracking right down the middle. "When you went school shopping with Ino. She hit me up and we got to talking, and…Sakura I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. This was all a big mistake. An accident. I swear, babe."

Sakura scoffed, a very unladylike snort escaping her as she pushed his hands off of her, rising quickly to her feet.

"Funny how guys always say the same shit," she snapped. Her stomach turned with her disgust, angry tears pricked at her eyes but like _hell_ would she let him see that, and she wanted nothing more than to push him right off the bleachers right in front of all of his football friends. "'I didn't mean to hurt you.' 'It meant nothing.' 'It was an accident.' What, Kiba? What? Did you trip and her vagina broke your fall?"

Kiba winced a little, but tried again. "She came onto me, I didn't go looking for it, she came onto me, and…"

"Do you have any idea how many guys hit on me since we got together last year?" she asked him, her voice rising. "Any idea at _all?_" There had been so many offers, so many opportunities, from guys who were better-looking, or sweeter, or funnier, or smarter than Kiba Inuzuka, offers she had turned down without so much as a thought. She was in a committed relationship, after all; she'd just assumed he was, too.

"We're done, obviously," she hissed. She sidestepped him and hopped down the rest of the bleachers, fully determined to march straight home, tell her dads all about it, and cry until college.

"Done? Babe, what do you mean, done?"

He had to be kidding. Had to be. The tears in her eyes vanished with the force of her rage, and she whirled around to see him with the kicked-puppy look on his face, a handsome face she wanted nothing more than to _smash_ in her fury.

"It means I'm dumping your worthless ass," she shot back. "Fucking idiot. Slutty fucking trashbag. You can do whatever the hell you want, I don't care but don't you ever look at me, talk to me, THINK about me again!"

Sakura was vaguely aware by now that they were attracting a fair amount of attention. It couldn't be helped; Kiba had confronted her during the football and cheer camp's half-hour break, perhaps under the misguided delusion that Sakura wouldn't make a scene in front of a huge audience. But he miscalculated. He always did. She looked over at the football field, and saw many of the players looking at them curiously; the other cheerleaders were gathered at the top of the stands, and a hush had befallen the entire Konoha High School football stadium as everyone tried to listen in.

"It won't happen again!" Kiba vowed, and his hand gestures indicated he was trying to shush her. Sakura was almost incandescent with rage at this point; she glared at him, her hands curling into fists, and contemplated if breaking every bone in her hand was a price she was willing to pay just to wipe that puppy-dog look off his tattooed face. "Babe, I promise, it meant nothing, I swear! It won't happen again! You're the only girl for me, everyone knows it!"

"If I was the only girl for you," she bit out stiffly, "you wouldn't have smashed the school trashcan. Leave me the fuck alone. I never want to talk to you again."

"You don't mean that!" Kiba said nervously, looking around them at the gathering spectators. Ino was already making her way down the bleachers to where they were arguing off the field. Naruto and Shikamaru were coming in off the field; Sakura noted that even Sasuke, one of her fringe friends, looked displeased. Probably because she was turning their night practice into a soap opera. "Babe…I love you. You know I love you. Don't throw everything we ever had away over one stupid mistake!"

"I didn't throw it away, Kiba!" she screamed, erupting at last. She shoved his chest, forcing him back away from her, and he stumbled before righting himself again, looking wounded. "I didn't throw anything away, you fucking asshole! You did! You threw it away!"

It was nothing like the confident, assertive speeches she'd seen her favorite actresses make on TV, eloquent and badass. It was pure, straight, unequivocal rage and heartache manifested into this one-sided screaming match and she didn't even care. She knew she would have plenty of time to be embarrassed about the way she was acting later, but for now, nothing was more important than throwing Kiba's words back in his face and telling him exactly what was on her mind.

"Baby, wait," he protested, grabbing her arm, but she wrenched it quickly out of his grasp.

"Don't fucking _touch me!_" she cried, as Ino, Naruto, and Shikamaru reached them at last to try and diffuse the situation. "Keep your fucking hands off of me! I hate you, I fucking hate you, don't you ever fucking come near me again!"

"Sakura, I…"

"Get out of here!" Ino's authoritative bark cut off whatever pathetic pleas Kiba was going to make. She slung an arm around Sakura's shoulders, businesslike and efficient in her role as 'best friend'. "All of you, get back to your practices, nothing to see here."

No one dared question Ino, the blue-eyed bombshell with a temper as volatile as her best friend's; with a fair amount of grumbling, the football players returned to the field, the cheerleaders back to their practice area by the tennis court. Sakura trembled with anger and hurt, blind to the gradual dispersion of the crowd who'd gathered to see the show, and didn't notice Sasuke lingering a bit by the Gatorade cooler, like he was trying to listen in.

Shikamaru grabbed Kiba by the arm and nodded back to the field.

"Come on, man," he said. "Leave her alone, you heard 'em. Let's get back to work."

"But…Sakura, don't do this, I swear it'll never happen again," Kiba tried again one last time, but Sakura was having none of it, and she was filled with gratitude to Ino, who seemed to know exactly what she needed.

"Get out of here, Kiba," Ino ordered. "This is over."

_This is over, this is over, this is over._ The words finally sunk in, and to her _horror,_ tears of sadness rose quickly to her eyes. She and Kiba had broken up many, many times over the past year, but the breakups had never lasted more than a few days, and usually came about because of silly, petty arguments they both easily dismissed. But this? Cheating? There was no coming back from that.

It was over.

Kiba looked at her one last time, warm brown eyes full of regret, before he allowed Shikamaru to tug him back onto the field.

"I'll see you at practice tomorrow," Naruto promised his friends, before joining Ino at Sakura's side, and now that Kiba and the others were out of earshot, she felt her self-control rapidly diminishing. Tears leaked from her eyes at last, and she looked up at her two best friends, positively brimming with heartache.

"He cheated on me," she whispered.

"Cheated?" Ino echoed. "With who?"

"He cheated on _you?_" Naruto gasped, like it was all the more shocking that Sakura was the wounded party. Like it was so unheard of for someone to take a girl like Sakura Haruno for granted.

"Ami," Sakura whimpered before bursting into tears. She allowed Ino to hug her tightly, and then Naruto's warm arms wrapped around them both. "Guys I…I don't…I can't do this here. I gotta leave."

"Sure," Ino said with a firm nod. "I'll take you home, I took my car to practice today."

"I'll go with you," Naruto added, like it was a foregone conclusion, and Sakura was filled with a burgeoning love for her best friends, who seemed to know precisely what to do in a situation like this. She was seconds from falling apart, but they swooped in to save the day at the most crucial moment.

"But…my car," she sniffled, and Naruto shook his head.

"Don't worry. I'll have Asshole bring it to your house for you. Gimme your keys."

By 'Asshole,' he meant Sasuke Uchiha. Sasuke was one of her best friends from childhood, but over the past few months or so, they'd grown apart; she saw less and less of him lately. He seemed to avoid her more often than not, and apart from being lab partners during AP Chem and hanging out with the same crowd, they hadn't seen each other much recently. She doubted he would want to be doing her favors, but Naruto took her keys before she could protest.

"I'll meet you guys at your car, Ino," Naruto said. "I'll tell Asshole what's going on. Don't cry, Sakura, he ain't worth it."

The girls watched as Naruto jogged back onto the field. Sasuke was waiting by the water cooler, and Sakura couldn't hear what they were saying, but his expression became more and more pissed. Just great; now she was inconveniencing him on top of making a total ass out of herself in front of all of her friends. The thought made her cry harder, and Ino started pulling her to the parking lot.

"It's okay, baby," Ino murmured as they headed towards her little purple Honda, Sakura half unable to see through a haze of tears and anger and hurt. "He didn't deserve you. He didn't. And I know it doesn't feel like it now," she went on, looking hard into Sakura's eyes, tearing up a little herself, because best friends shared each other's pain, "but it'll be okay. I promise, this won't last forever."

_This is over._

Abruptly, staring pathetically at her best friend and trying not to break, Sakura thought back to just that morning. How happy she'd been, when Kiba picked her up and took her for breakfast at her favorite diner. He'd smiled so easily, so _guiltlessly,_ like there was absolutely nothing wrong, and in their volatile hot-and-cold relationship, it was a comfortable high point. He'd called her beautiful and before dropping her off at home so they could each get ready for their respective camp practices, he'd kissed her, a sweet, lovely kiss that made her lips tingle.

How was Sakura supposed to know, looking in his happy, innocent brown eyes and letting the warm feelings fill her from within, that that was going to be the last one?

* * *

Sasuke wasn't necessarily trying to eavesdrop.

It wasn't his fault he happened to have extremely good hearing.

Nor was it his fault that Kiba and Sakura weren't making much of an effort to keep quiet.

It looked like another break-up for Konoha High School's most fickle, back-and-forth couple. Sasuke wasn't sure what the reason this time was, (they'd called it off a few weeks ago because of an argument over _crawfish,_) but it looked somewhat serious. Sakura was yelling at him, and he saw that she was crying.

His frown of disinterest transformed quickly into a frown of disapproval. He didn't know or particularly care what they were fighting about, but like hell did Kiba have any right to make her _cry._

A guy like Kiba, who was in a relationship with bar none the prettiest, sweetest, smartest girl at Konoha High School, had absolutely no reason to do anything but be grateful she'd bothered to waste any of her time on him in the first place.

He took another drink of Gatorade from the cooler even though he wasn't thirsty, and looked up to see Naruto and Shikamaru run off the field to diffuse the tension. Ino hurried down the bleacher steps from where she stood with the other cheerleaders, and Sasuke resisted the temptation to join them all as well. It had been a long time since he felt like he deserved to be part of Sakura's protective bubble of friends.

They weren't as close lately as they used to be, and Sasuke knew he was a big part of that.

Nonetheless, morbid curiosity had him listening in anyway, lingering by the cooler instead of returning to his workout. His teammates were all drawing closer to the sidelines anyway, not even trying to be discreet in their blatant attempts to listen to what was going on. Not much could bring sweet, sunny Sakura to tears like this; he doubted, though, that he could get away with telling them off for their voyeurism without coming off as a hypocrite.

A few more minutes of screaming and Shikamaru yanked Kiba back onto the field. Naruto hugged Sakura and Ino, said something Sasuke couldn't hear, then ran over to the cooler.

"What's going on, idiot," Sasuke asked, trying not to sound as though he'd been listening.

"It's bad," Naruto answered. He looked uncharacteristically worried; there was none of the typical optimism in his eyes as he pressed something into Sasuke's hand. He held it up and saw it was a keyring, with a University of Konoha lanyard and about a hundred keys. "Here. Do me a favor…take Sakura's car back to her house after practice today. We're heading over there now."

"She wants me to do it?" Sasuke was surprised; Sakura rarely, if ever, asked him for anything anymore, apparently out of a misplaced desire not to inconvenience him. "What happened, Naruto."

"Kiba cheated on her," Naruto said, not bothering to hide his contempt. He glared at Kiba's back, and as soon as he said the words, Sasuke's frown deepened.

Disgusting. Kiba was never going to be good enough for Sakura Haruno, but this was an inexcusable offense. What possible reason could he have to betray the trust of a girl like that?

"She's really upset about it," Naruto murmured. "She needs us, man."

Sasuke glared at Kiba and wondered if this overwhelming desire to punch his tattoos off was normal, and pocketed Sakura's keys to show willing. In a weird, perverse, morbid way, maybe this decisive break-up with Kiba would be the catalyst to mending their friendship. Or at least bridging the gap.

Leave it to Sasuke to capitalize on someone else's heartache.

"Aa," he replied, angry with a million things. "I'll be there later."

Naruto nodded. "Thanks, man. See you then." Sasuke watched as Naruto ran back off the field, abandoning the practice early, and wrapped an arm around Sakura's shoulders with Ino. The three of them left the stadium together, and Sasuke turned a very sadistic eye back on his team.

"Get back in formation!" Sasuke ordered.

Kiba picked a very, very, very bad time to piss off the football captain.

xoxoxox

Sasuke hadn't been in Sakura's car in awhile, and he'd never driven it. A little white Miata her dads had bought for her sixteenth birthday, used, but in pretty good condition. It could use some new brake pads, he noted, and the slight grinding sound meant she needed an oil change, but beyond that, it was a decent car.

He sat in the driver's seat and immediately pushed it backwards. Sakura sat way too close to the wheel when she drove, or maybe she really was that short. Rolling his eyes, he pulled out of the school parking lot and headed across town.

He wasn't great at comforting people. It was more in his nature to tell them to suck it up and get on with their lives. He didn't know how well that was going to go over with Sakura, who'd looked absolutely distraught during her big fight with Kiba. Not to mention, outside of school, he almost never saw her anymore, unless it was with a group of their mutual friends. They used to be extremely close, but right around the time she started dating Kiba, Sasuke found it somewhat difficult to spend time with her alone.

Being in love with a girl who had a boyfriend did that to you.

This could be the opening he needed to get things back where they used to be. Sasuke was too much of a realist to hope for anything more than that anytime soon. Sakura had had her heart broken not two hours ago. She was going to need time to repair it before putting herself back on the market.

When she was ready, though? That was a different story.

Till then, Sasuke would do his best to be her friend again. Now that he no longer had a six-foot, brown-eyed reason to hold her at arms' length.

With that in mind, he pulled up to her house and parked behind Ino's little Honda out front. Her dads' cars were in the driveway, which meant they were home and had probably heard the whole story by now. Sasuke smirked. Sakura had not one, but two, pissed off, overprotective fathers who would be out for Kiba's blood tonight.

When he looked up at the front door on the well-kept little yellow house, he saw that Sakura was sitting on the front porch steps. Naruto and Ino were on either side of her, a tissue box in Ino's lap, and they appeared to be talking to her in hushed voices.

Not for the first time, Sasuke questioned his decision to come here. He wasn't close with Sakura anymore. She most likely resented him for putting such distance between them, but he'd done it to protect himself. Torturing himself with the constant presence of a girl he couldn't have was driving him crazy. He missed her, even if he wouldn't admit it, and he was bizarrely grateful for this odious circumstance.

It was a chance to get back in Sakura's good graces. A chance to earn the spot on the front porch steps back.

Sasuke turned the key in the ignition and stepped out of the car. He made his way up the walkway and tossed Sakura's keys to her. She caught them, sniffled a little (her eyes were red), and murmured, "Thanks, Sasuke. You didn't have to do that."

"Hn," he replied. He wasn't good with words. They didn't come out right or in the proper order so he used them sparingly, but when Ino gave him a meaningful glare, he sighed and murmured, "Crying over him is stupid."

Sakura blinked. Ino and Naruto looked at him angrily, like he'd said the wrong thing, but he kept his gaze on Sakura, who, at least at one point in time, understood him better than the others did. Even if what he said sounded horrible, he hoped she would understand what he actually meant.

A tiny, fragile smile lifted her lips, and she giggled.

"It is, isn't it?" she sighed wistfully, dabbing at her stormy green eyes. "I mean…it's not like I didn't see this coming."

"You didn't?" Naruto asked. "What do you mean?"

Sasuke took a chance and leaned up against the porch, not sitting with the others, but standing close to them with his arms folded. When no one demanded that he leave, he took that as a sign that Sakura accepted his presence among her group of confidantes, and relaxed somewhat.

"I mean…we had problems for a long time. Everyone knew. I just…I don't know. I thought he'd at least have the decency to break up with me _before_ sticking it in Ami."

Sasuke wrinkled his nose. Apart from Sakura, he didn't think much of Kiba's taste.

"Well, if she thinks she's welcome at cheer practice, she's fucking high," Ino said dryly. At that, Sasuke smirked. It seemed he wasn't alone in abusing his power as a team captain to ensure vengeance for Sakura. Ino, along with her wounded friend, was co-captain of the Konoha High School cheerleading squad, and didn't appear to have any scruples when it came to ousting a cheerleader for violating the sanctity of cheerleading sisterhood, or whatever. "Sakura, what you need to understand about guys is when they do shit like this to their girlfriends, cheat on them or whatever, it's never with someone who's better than the person they were with. You get that, right? They never upgrade. It's always some spiraling vortex of fugly they bang."

"I know, I know," Sakura sighed, still sounding sad, but at least she wasn't crying anymore. "Just…you know. Senior year and everything, I kind of thought I had everything…in order. A steady boyfriend I really cared about..." Here, Sasuke couldn't help but notice that Sakura never said anything about _loving_ Kiba, which was odd. "…I just can't believe he'd do that to me. I thought I was special to him."

"You ARE special, Sakura!" Naruto insisted, much better at this comforting business than Sasuke, who just stood off to the side and brooded over things in silence. "You're the nicest, funniest, coolest, cutest girl at KHS, believe it! Kiba's _crazy_ for doing this to you!"

"i'm just being silly sitting here feeling sorry for myself, huh?" Sakura laughed at last, but Sasuke knew better. She felt guilty for needing so much attention from her friends, and was now downplaying how she felt so they wouldn't worry. Textbook Sakura, to minimize her own struggles. He rolled his eyes again.

No one thought she was weak or pathetic for having her heart broken. Didn't she see that?

"Just be single for awhile, girl," Ino said. "It's the _life._ No boys, no obligations, you can flirt with whoever you want and dance up on whoever you want and just have a great time, you know?"

"Yeah, sounds good," Sakura said, while Sasuke fervently, silently disagreed. "Thanks, you guys. Anyway I'm tired, I'm just gonna go to bed early…thanks so much for listening to me complain and everything. You've been here for hours. And Sasuke…I know it must've been a pain in the ass and completely out of your way to drop my car off, so, thank you."

"That's a whole lot of 'thank yous', boo," Ino said, hugging her friend tightly and kissing her on the cheek. "Text me later. I know you won't go to sleep right away. If you need anything, let me know. And Ami's off the squad. I'll fire her ass tomorrow. You won't have to see her until you're ready."

Sakura smiled.

"Bye, Sakura," Naruto said, and he hugged her, too. "Don't waste anymore time on him. He never deserved you anyways. Oi, Ino, take me home, will you?"

Ino gave an exaggerated sigh and tossed her long blonde ponytail over her shoulder. "Fine, useless. You need a ride, too, Sasuke?"

"No," he replied, even though he lived a good eight blocks away and it was starting to look like rain.

Ino frowned a little in confusion, then glanced from Sasuke to Sakura and back again. A smile he didn't trust unfurled across her painted red lips, like she knew a juicy secret and wasn't telling.

"Suit yourself. Let's go, bimbo," she added to Naruto. "Text me, Sakura, I mean it."

"I know, I know."

Ino drove off with Naruto, leaving Sasuke alone with Sakura. He didn't turn to face her, and she didn't say anything for awhile. For a few minutes, it was just like the old days, a quiet evening spent in companionable silence on her porch, the site of so many old, fond memories. Sasuke inhaled deeply and tried to savor the moment; awhile later, Sakura finally spoke.

"Sorry I interrupted your practice."

He turned to her and saw that there was a wry smile on her face. She was hugging her knees and drowning in an oversized hoodie, long pink hair piled up on top of her head; there were tear streaks on her flushed pink cheeks and her eyes were glassy.

He thought she was gorgeous.

"Hn?"

"I put on quite a show, huh?" She laughed in a self-deprecating kind of way. "Interrupting your practice and shit with my hysterics."

"Tch. We were on break."

She laughed again. "I guess so. Scale of one to ten, how embarrassed were you by me?"

He snorted and didn't bother answering.

Another comfortable silence passed, before thunder rumbled overhead. He glanced up at the skies and saw that they were darker than normal. The wind was picking up. He should leave, before the storm hit.

"You getting out of here?" she asked. "Yeah, it's starting to look bad…sorry about tonight. And thank you, it really means a…"

"Stop apologizing to me," Sasuke ground out. "Stop thanking me. Just do me one favor."

She looked up at him with wide, inquisitive eyes, prompting him to continue.

"Don't go back to that fucking asshole," he snapped. It was rude, it was abrupt, it was commanding and completely out of line and not his place and a million other things, but it had the desired effect.

Sakura smiled, beautiful and genuine, the way he hadn't seen her smile in months.

"All right, Sasuke," she said softly. "I won't."

Sasuke knew, as he walked home briskly to beat the rain, that this was the end of an era. Sakura had been dating Kiba for over a year. It would be a chance now to redefine where he stood with her. He didn't want to be the old friend who'd grown apart from her. He didn't want to be a casual date or a quick, easy fuck or a shoulder to cry on.

He wanted everything from Sakura, and he had for years.

This was the end of something big, and the start of something bigger.

With school starting in a week, Sasuke realized he had one last year to get it right with Sakura Haruno.

And he wasn't going to lose her. Not again.

* * *

**some notes and shit..** yes, i have another story. each chapter is going to be based off of a taylor swift song, so to enhance your reading experience, i would recommend t-swizzle always. i'll tell it in alternating sakura/sasuke points-of-view because i like that best. and people have been hitting me up asking for a high school story, so here you go.

and i gave sakura two gay dads. because my husband has two gay dads and they're the best couple in the world and they raised the best son in the world.

please refrain from: favoriting/following without an occasional review. (srsly, you guys have to know me by now. but i still have people who have favorited EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY STORIES and never left me any feedback.) telling me to include something or a so-and-so pairing or whatever. (i like writing my own stories. if you have different ideas, write your own, i'm sure you can do a better job of it than me!) and telling me i have too many stories going on. (i have a lot going on to keep myself interested.)

thanks, booboos. let me know what you think! i'm pretty excited about this one, tbQh. now that sandy let me have power again, that big noreaster bitch.

love you!

xoxo daisy

how'd i do?


	2. You're Not Sorry

You're Not Sorry

Sakura sat alone on the porch for a few more minutes as the storm rolled in. Thunderstorms were very, very common in Konoha, especially during the dwindling summer months, because the humidity was so high. Protected by the shade of her fathers' awning, she stared out at the sidewalk watching the first few raindrops fall from the sky.

A stray tear escaped her eye and she rubbed it away with the palm of her hand in irritation the way she used to do when she was little. She didn't want to cry anymore, especially over something like this. But how was she supposed to have seen it coming, anyway?

Of course, she and Kiba had had problems. But he was seventeen and she was sixteen, so she chalked it up to being young and wild. Could it have been, though, that there were warning signs?

She inhaled the scent of rain and tried to think. Kiba had acted so _normal_ lately, sweeter than usual, even. Was that in and of itself a clue? He'd slept with Ami an entire week ago, but showed not one sign that he had done anything wrong until deciding to tell her this afternoon. And maybe that was the part that hurt her most: how easily he had deceived her. How comfortable he had been with it.

_What kind of boyfriend does that?_ she thought angrily. _Lies so convincingly about everything that I don't even question what he's saying? Am I that naïve? Or is he just that remorseless?_

She didn't want her friends to know she was still overthinking the whole scenario, mainly because she didn't want to worry Ino, upset Naruto, or annoy Sasuke, who was a rather unexpected, but not unwelcome, addition to the pity party Sakura had thrown herself that afternoon. She downplayed how she was really feeling so as not to put them out anymore than she had already done, but now that she was left alone with her thoughts, she felt herself succumbing to the sadness and anger she was trying so hard to avoid.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket, and she pulled it out and looked at the Caller ID to see that it was Kiba. She narrowed her eyes and turned it off, not wanting anything to do with him. The thought of seeing his face made her physically sick; the prospect of hearing his voice, and more bullshit excuses tumble out of his mouth, would have sent her over the edge.

She needed time. She needed to think. She needed to sort out her emotions. And she really, really hated herself for it, but part of her, deep down, really, really missed Kiba already.

_I can't go back to him,_ she thought miserably. _He crossed a line and burned a bridge and I can't, can't, can't look past what he did. How easily he lied to me. But I just…I miss him! I know it's over, I know it HAS to be over, I just can't BELIEVE it._

This day felt like something out of someone else's life. These kinds of things didn't happen to Sakura Haruno. Sakura, who was too clever and too independent to let herself be fooled by a selfish teenage boy. Sakura, who was considered to be one of the prettiest, most popular girls at school, someone every guy would want to be with, someone no guy would ever take advantage of. Sakura, who was in control of herself and wouldn't let anyone treat her wrong.

But here she was. Crying on her front porch in the rain like some horrible, terrible cliché, because she'd trusted the wrong boy.

"Sakura?"

She looked behind her and saw her fathers standing in the threshold, both of them looking concerned. Kakashi Hatake (Daddy) and Iruka Umino (Dad), a young couple at the time, had adopted her when she was six months old, after her birth parents, friends of theirs, died in a car accident. She'd kept Kizashi and Mebuki Haruno's last name her whole life. While they were even more overprotective than a typical teenage girl's father, she loved them dearly. The only fistfight she'd ever been involved in was with a little boy on the playground in kindergarten, who made fun of them in front of her. (She'd kicked his little ass.)

"You okay?" Kakashi asked gently, sitting beside her on the porch and ruffling her messy pink hair.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she mumbled. "Just wallowing. I'll get over it."

"'Course you will!" Iruka said bracingly. He sat on Sakura's other side, and the young, happy family spent a few quiet moments looking out into the storm. Sakura was so grateful that they were being so supportive, when she knew it was far more in line for Kakashi to take a baseball bat and hunt Kiba down, and Iruka to hold Kiba still while his partner went to town.

"You guys aren't gonna kill him, are you?" she giggled. "I'm surprised you haven't already."

"I considered it," Kakashi replied, leaning back comfortably on the wooden steps, casual as you please given what he was saying. "But I happened to be jogging by the football stadium today, and I noticed your friend Sasuke running an absolutely brutal practice…I couldn't quite understand why, until you told me what happened with you and Kiba. Seems Sasuke took care of the physical punishment end for us."

Sakura blushed a little. Kakashi always dropped a fair few hints that she might want to consider taking things to a higher level with Sasuke Uchiha, but he had to see how ridiculous that was. She'd had a very intense crush on him throughout most of school. Sasuke wasn't into her. End of story.

For some reason, he just couldn't seem to understand that.

"I'm sorry he hurt you, honey," Iruka said gently, his tone so full of understanding that it nearly made Sakura cry all over again. "You didn't do anything wrong, and he's an idiot for betraying your trust. Your daddy and I are here for you if you need anything."

Sakura smiled and leaned into his hug while Kakashi stroked her hair. "I think I'm just gonna go to my room," she sighed after a few moments of much-needed parental affection. "I have cheer camp early in the morning and I have to figure out how to avoid Kiba. God I used to _like_ practicing so close to the football players."

Iruka groaned, never one to enjoy his baby girl talking about boys, but Kakashi chuckled from behind his omnipresent face mask, relic of a hypersensitivity to germs. It was an all-knowing kind of chuckle, the kind that usually made Sakura wary.

"Maybe," he said, "you were just concentrating on the _wrong_ football player."

"Don't put any ideas into her head!" Iruka said sharply. "She needs to focus on herself and her studies and her activities, not a quick rebound with one of those fast-fuck football-playing bag of hormones! Idiot."

Sakura giggled and kissed them both on the cheek before standing up. Her muscles were sore from spending so many hours in the same almost catatonic position, and she knew she should eat something, but she simply wasn't hungry. No, a lazy, early night in bed spent watching TV and texting her best friend seemed highly in order.

"Thanks, guys," she said gratefully. "G'night."

"Night, Sakura," they replied in unison, and she headed inside, up the stairs and into her room.

* * *

The next morning, Naruto pulled up to Sasuke's apartment in his beat-up old car so they could head over to the football field. Four-hour practices were exhausting, and Sasuke almost regretted working the team as hard as he did the day before.

Almost. Remembering Kiba vomiting profusely in the locker room after being put through the workout of a lifetime made it worth his sore knees and shoulders this morning.

Sasuke got in the front seat and responded to Naruto's excited "Hey, man!" with a neutral nod. When Naruto pulled away, however, he added, "We gotta stop and pick up the girls, too."

By girls, Sasuke understood him to mean Ino and Sakura. This was odd; usually they headed to practice by themselves. The casual but noticeable distance between himself and Sakura made it almost uncomfortable to be around them sometimes, so they'd kind of drifted apart.

"Huh?" he asked stupidly.

"Ino texted me last night," Naruto explained. "Kiba's gonna try to talk to Sakura today at practice, but she doesn't think he will if we all go in with her. She thinks he's intimidated by us or some shit."

_With good reason,_ Sasuke thought coldly.

"So we're gonna start carpooling with the girls for the rest of camp," Naruto finished. "Look at it this way, we're getting the old band back together."

Sasuke tried not to let Naruto know how happy that made him. Before Sakura started dating Kiba, she spent all her time with himself, Naruto, and Ino, sometimes the rest of their friends, but the four of them were almost inseparable. The news that things might be returning to Sasuke's ideal normal so quickly was definitely a good sign.

He didn't let it show on his face, though. Naruto knew more or less how he felt about Sakura; it was one of the unfortunate things about having a best friend. The complete and utter inability to keep big, important secrets from one another. There was no need to gratify Naruto's awareness with a long, in-depth discussion about his _feelings,_ many of which were still so complex that not even he could make sense of them yet.

They picked up Ino first, who immediately grilled them on how to act when they got to the school.

"She's not ready to talk to him," she said, instead of greeting them like a normal person would. But Sasuke sort of appreciated that about her; Ino's loyalty, first and foremost, was to Sakura, and vice versa. "She told me last night when we were talking. So under no circumstances do we let him near her. Understand?"

"What'd you do about Ami?" Naruto asked as he drove downtown to Sakura's house.

"Fired her," Ino replied lightly. "Of course. And she's lucky that's all I did."

Sasuke smirked and said nothing from the front seat.

"And she told me her daddy went by the school last night during his run," Ino continued, and Sasuke looked at her in the rearview mirror to see her bright blue eyes full of mischief, "and noticed how the Konoha High School football captain seemed to be running an especially brutal practice for some reason."

"I dunno what you're talking about," Sasuke replied nonchalantly, but Naruto was laughing.

"I knew it, man! I knew you were working us way harder than usual! You dick, you made all of us suffer just to get back at Kiba?"

"You're both idiots," he scoffed.

"You realize that Kakashi wants you to marry his daughter, right?" Ino informed him dryly. "He's pretty much obsessed."

Sasuke frowned a little at that and didn't respond. He always had an inkling that Kakashi would approve of him dating Sakura, but obviously, never had the opportunity to test that theory. Whenever he would hang out at Sakura's house, Kakashi engaged him in conversation about sports, showed genuine interest in his life, in comparison to Iruka, who looked at him like he was something dangerous. Sasuke suspected that Kakashi might be pushing for him to date Sakura, but when she was single, it was easy to postpone any thoughts about her until it was convenient. By the time he figured out he actually wanted her for himself, she was already seeing someone else.

"What a coincidence!" Naruto chuckled. "Sasuke's pretty obsessed with Sakura at the same time. You should go for it, man! She's on the market now, and you know she won't be for long!"

His frown deepened. He didn't want to talk about this with either of them, now or ever, nor did he want to be reminded that girls like Sakura never stayed single for more than a few months. His situation with Sakura was something that had to be considered carefully, and he needed to take care of it on his own, without his loser friends' interference.

"Don't rush into anything," Ino said warningly, clearly not picking up on his refusal to discuss this. "She needs to be single for awhile…she's not in any position to do anything with guys for awhile, till she gets over what happened. You don't want to be a rebound, do you? Of course not."

"I don't know," Naruto said thoughtfully, a shit-eating grin unfurling on his face that Sasuke absolutely hated, "with a girl as pretty as Sakura, I'd take what I can get!"

Sasuke knew he was only saying that to piss him off, but it didn't make him any less angry. The last thing he wanted was for his personal thoughts and feelings to be probed and prodded and examined by two loudmouth blonde assholes like the ones in the car with him.

But Ino had a point. Sakura would need some time before she would even be able to consider dating someone else, let alone someone like him. And he would give it to her, as long as she needed.

And, on a somewhat less noble note, he would deliberately interfere with any other guy who tried to swoop in on her in the meantime. He smirked. This could work.

They could repair their friendship first. That had to be a priority. And Sasuke might not know much about love beyond the torch he carried so secretly for one of his best friends, but he knew a solid relationship had to have a strong foundation in friendship. That much was obvious. He couldn't get Sakura to really, truly trust him unless they were as close as they used to be, especially not after she'd had her heart broken by a guy who'd betrayed that trust.

Naruto pulled up to Sakura's house a moment later, and Sasuke glanced out the window to see her coming down the steps, looking a little confused. He guessed she was used to getting rides with either Ino or Kiba, and seeing Naruto's old clunker in front of her house was somewhat of a surprise.

He also noticed she looked even prettier than usual; usually, in summertime, she wore her hair in what she called "natural beach waves," and what Ino referred to as a "clumpy knotty mess," but she'd straightened it perfectly this morning and it was pulled into a sleek, flawless ponytail instead of the messy bun she typically tied it up in to save time. She was wearing makeup, too, not a lot, because in cheer practice she was likely to sweat it off, but enough to enhance the gorgeous shape of her eyes.

"Looking good, Forehead!" Ino said approvingly when Sakura slipped into the backseat next to her, Sasuke's eyes watching her carefully all the while. "You never want to let some cheating asshole know he's hurt you."

"Exactly," Sakura said coolly, and Sasuke noted she looked a lot more peaceful this morning than she had last night. "If I came in with red eyes looking as deranged as I did yesterday, he'd never let me live it down. Fucking asshole."

"You okay, Sakura?" Naruto asked from the driver's seat.

"I don't want to talk about it anymore," she sighed. "I think I carried on enough yesterday. Can we stop and get a Sizzli, though? I'm starving."

"Hell yeah, we can!" Naruto perked up instantly at the mention of fast food, and gunned the engine away from Sakura's sidewalk.

Sasuke was revolted by the breakfast sandwiches Sakura so loved, but pleased that she wanted one. He'd been her friend long enough to know that when she was upset about something, it manifested itself into a loss of appetite. When her dog died in ninth grade, he thought he would have to set up an IV for her just to get some food in her system. He was expecting to have to force her to eat something this time around, but she didn't appear to need the push.

"You're the worst vegetarian in the world," Ino mocked her, as they left the gas station to return to the car and finally head to practice. "You don't eat any meat except for those fucking sausage patties on the Sizzlis. You know it cancels out your ability to call yourself a vegetarian, right?"

"Well, they don't have a word for being 99% vegetarian, 1% weak for sausage, egg, and cheese Sizzlis," Sakura returned serenely, around a mouthful of breakfast sandwich. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"You should eat meat," he said, sitting in the passenger's seat and folding his arms. "People need protein."

"You can get protein from other things," Sakura argued. "Have you ever seen the inside of the meat packing plants? And how cruelly they treat the animals? No thank you."

"And you think your sausage patty came from a pig that just felt like donating?" Ino drawled.

"I can't help it, I know I'm weak!" Sakura wailed, and Naruto laughed as he pulled out of the parking lot with one hand on the wheel, the other around a Sizzli of his own.

"The hell are you apologizing for? Sasuke's right, you need some meat on your bones. You're so skinny!"

"Please," Sakura moaned, rolling her eyes. "I put on like a thousand pounds this summer."

Sasuke pinched the bridge of his nose. One thing he _hadn't_ missed about having a female best friend? The constant verbalization of every fictitious flaw she found in herself. Sakura weighed a hundred pounds soaking wet; she was the flier on the cheerleading squad for a reason, but like every other teenaged girl, suffered from a cripplingly low self-esteem and horrible self-image.

"You need to eat meat," he repeated. "You're too fucking thin. You look sick."

Her eyes flashed fire in the rearview mirror, and she snapped, "And you look stupid!"

They all degenerated into a familiar argument, one that lacked any real venom, but by the time Naruto reached the school parking lot, Sakura was distracted again. She looked nervous, kept biting her bottom lip and fiddling with her ponytail.

"I don't want to talk to him," she said firmly. "Not yet. I'm still too angry."

"That's why we're here, Sakura!" Naruto chirped bracingly, stepping out of the car while the others followed suit. "We'll keep him occupied at practice. You just go look pretty in your little shorts with Ino."

"Sakura!"

Sasuke looked up as her name was called and his eyes narrowed. Kiba was running towards them, disheveled and desperate. Their plan to keep him separated from Sakura went up in smoke. Beside him, he felt her stiffen, and without really thinking about it, he shifted his body slightly so that he stood a little between them.

"You got a lotta nerve comin' over here!" Naruto snapped, blocking Sakura fully from Kiba's view. "After what you did to Sakura!"

Kiba frowned slightly when he noticed Sasuke, then shook his head. "I just…I want to talk to you, Sakura. Okay? Just us. I know it's a lot to ask for, I know you're still mad and everything and it'll be awhile until you get over this…"

What did he _know_ about Sakura? Sasuke wondered angrily. What exactly gave him the right to approach her after wronging her so terribly, and minimalize her feelings?

Maybe yesterday's workout wasn't enough. Maybe he needed to kick Kiba's ass properly, and personally.

"I don't want to talk to you," Sakura said, and Sasuke could tell she was going for strong and confident, but it simply came off as brittle and shaky. "I have nothing to say right now. Leave me alone."

"Just…just five minutes!" Kiba finally begged. "After practice can you just give me _five minutes?_ You don't owe me or anything, I just…I really need to talk to you. I miss you, babe."

Sasuke bristled at the pet name. Behind him, Sakura whimpered.

"She'll talk to you when she's ready," Ino snapped, speaking up on behalf of her best friend who was about to break down. "On her terms, not yours. Get out of here, Kiba."

"_Please,_ Sakura," Kiba pleaded.

She stepped forward, arms crossed, and Sasuke saw that her eyes were narrowed. He'd misjudged her, apparently, thinking that she was on the verge of tears when really she was seconds from losing her temper completely. He preferred that, an angry Sakura to a heartbroken one. Angry meant she wasn't crying, and Sasuke never really knew how to handle her tears.

"You can have three minutes after practice," she told him coldly. "That's all I'm willing to give you. And you can bet your ass I'll keep time on my cell phone to make sure I don't give you _one second more_ of my time than you deserve."

Irritated with her willingness to talk to the asshole who'd broken her heart, and pleased with her backbone all at once, Sasuke stalked towards the football field.

"Let's go, assholes," he called to Naruto and Kiba. "Four laps to warm up."

He chanced one more glance behind him at Sakura, to find, to his surprise, that she wasn't staring wistfully after Kiba as he ran to the football field for another grueling workout. Instead, her beryl-green eyes were locked on his, and a small, genuine smile lifted her pretty pink lips. She waved to him and turned away with Ino to head over to cheerleading practice.

His anger dissipated somewhat (interesting, how Sakura was both the cause for his frustration and the cure for it), and he decided that maybe he'd go a little easier on Kiba today, even if the bastard was nowhere near as sorry for what he'd done as he should be.

After all, his complete _fuck-up_ was enabling Sasuke to get right back where he wanted to be: the forefront of Sakura Haruno's mind, and the reason for her tiny, secret smile.

* * *

**note..** Song: You're Not Sorry. Listen! Each chapter is inspired by a different T-Swift song (but this is NOT a song-fic, I'm not using any copyrighted lyrics, since it's against the rules.)

A Sizzli is a delicious breakfast treat from Wawa, a chain of gas stations/convenience stores really popular in PA and surrounding states. If you haven't heard of it, you will soon: Wawa's taking over and for good fucking reason, that shit's delicious. If you have, holla at me! I'm a horrible vegetarian, too, because I eat zero meat except Wawa Sizzli. And I have no regrets.

Anyway, thank you SO MUCH for all the wonderful feedback, I'm so happy to hear from so many of you, old and new reviewers! It really keeps me motivated, so feel free to ALWAYS COME BACK TO ME ALWAYS! I'm in love with all of you, and very, very excited for this story. Let me know how I did!

xoxo Daisy :)


	3. We Are Never, Ever Getting Back Together

We're Never Ever Getting Back Together

There was once a time, Sakura reflected, when looking into Kiba's warm brown eyes would make her melt. He could be saying something completely infuriating, work her temper into a cyclone, push her every button and get right under her skin…then he could look into her eyes and she would forget everything except how much she cared for him.

Now, as she sat on the bleachers with him, the site of their dramatic break-up the day before, all she felt when she looked into his eyes was disappointment.

"I know you're mad," he began, and Sakura's eyes narrowed. He was doing it again. Heading her off, like she was some dangerous explosive about to go off, instead of what she really was: a girl he'd hurt badly who was trying not to overreact.

"I know I fucked up," he went on.

"You did," she said flatly, glancing at her cell phone. "Two minutes, Kiba. Then I'm going home."

"…but you don't have to do this," he finished. He reached out to take her hand, but she snatched it away before he could, and his hand fell awkwardly between them. Daunted but persistent, he added, "Let's just start over, babe. It won't happen again. Nothing like this will ever happen again."

This was exactly what boys just didn't _get._ It frustrated Sakura, but she'd agreed to this conversation in the first place, so she had to see it through. She leaned back against the warm metal of the bleacher behind her and looked up wistfully at the sky, a beautiful, endless blue.

"Even if it doesn't," she murmured, "I don't trust you anymore. I don't think I'll ever be able to. Not as a boyfriend, anyways. Every time I call and you don't answer, I know exactly what I'll think. I'll get suspicious of you. I'll always just…_wonder._ You hid it from me _so easily,_ Kiba. That's the biggest problem I have. You could just lie right to my face and it doesn't even matter."

She expected Kiba to either sigh in defeat, or plead a little harder.

She didn't expect his eyes to narrow at her, and him to scoff an irritated, "Tch," like she'd said something absurd.

"What the hell is _your_ problem?" she demanded, instantly pissed at his attitude. What right did _he_ have to be irritated with _her?_

"You're so fucking clueless," Kiba snorted. "You always have been. Yeah, Sakura, I cheated on you. It was a shitty thing to do, but you know what? I came clean about it. I could've gotten away with it, y'know. I didn't _have_ to tell you about it, but I did, because I fucking love you, and I have since middle school. But _you?_"

Here he fixed her with an expression so full of disgust, her jaw actually dropped.

"You're the one who's been lying to herself the whole fucking time we were together," he said coldly. "And the worst part is, you believe your own lies."

"What…the _fuck…_are you talking about?" Sakura snarled. "I've _never_ lied to you! About _anything!_ How could you _possibly_ accuse me of that right now?"

Kiba stood up abruptly, jamming his hands into his pockets, and he snapped over his shoulder, "You're the one who's been head over ass in love with someone else the whole time we were together."

Sakura jumped to her feet and jerked her hand back, fully intending to slap him right across the face; she couldn't believe she'd become one of those clichés, slapping boys with all kinds of self-righteous feminine rage, but here she was. Kiba was faster, though, and caught her hand, eyes boring into hers.

"You wanna know why I cheated on you?" he snapped cruelly, and Sakura was too shocked to speak. Between him randomly accusing her of being in love with another boy (which was patently, and extraordinarily untrue) and throwing his indiscretion back in her face, she could hardly recognize the person standing in front of her. There was nothing warm about him right now. "Because this whole time, I loved you from the bottom of my fucking soul. More than _anything_, almost. And the whole time, you only ever _cared_ about me. And you're too _delusional_ to realize you never loved me because you were always, from the start, in love with _Uchiha._"

"That's not true!" Sakura gasped, the accusation like a punch in the gut. She'd had feelings for Sasuke back when she was younger, but after realizing he would never reciprocate, she'd resolved to move on years ago. It was unfounded, it was unheard of, and she couldn't believe her ears. "We've only ever been _friends!_"

"Tch," Kiba scoffed. "I seen the way he looks at you. And the way you look at him. Maybe if you two spent five minutes alone together, I wouldn't be the only one to fuck up like this."

"You're using your _completely unreasonable_ jealousy of Sasuke Uchiha to justify what you did?" Sakura snarled, and her voice sounded almost animalistic in her anger. She wrenched her arm away from his grasp and seized him by the collar of his sweaty T-shirt, jerking him down to her level. She watched a flare of attraction pass through Kiba's eyes, but she had never been less aroused in all her life. "I never did ANYTHING to you. I never did ANYTHING with Sasuke. I never even THOUGHT about it while we were dating! If anything, I almost lost his friendship being with you! I never wanted _you_ to feel uncomfortable, or intimidated by me hanging around with one of my _best friends_ so I stopped hanging out with him! I did _everything I could,_ Kiba!"

His expression softened. He looked almost sad.

"Except love me back," he murmured.

Silence stretched between them, because that was one thing Sakura _couldn't_ deny. She'd cared for him deeply, liked him, was fiercely attracted to him, enjoyed his company, wanted him to be happy…and yes, she _had_ loved him, and during their relationship, she thought she could classify that as being _in love_ with him, but now she wasn't so sure.

But even if that was true, and he'd loved her deeper than she loved him, it didn't justify what he'd done. It didn't make it right.

"I'm willing to try again," Kiba continued quietly, and with the wind in his messy brown hair and remorse in his brown eyes and the affectionate way he looked at her, he looked just like himself again, compared to that stranger he'd been a few minutes ago. "With you. If you want. I wouldn't screw up like that again. I should never have done that, and I'm sorry if I hurt you, I really am."

"I know," she said softly. Her grip loosened on his T-shirt, and she ran her fingers through his hair instead, feeling something inside of her break, because she knew how this movie ended. "I know you're sorry, Kiba. But I can't."

She watched his eyes well up with tears, and realized belatedly that she was crying, too. This whole fucking situation just absolutely _sucked_, start to finish, and she didn't feel like the wronged party much anymore. If anything, she felt immeasurably guilty, and she wasn't sure if it was justified or not.

"We were having problems anyway," she whispered. "Things were getting hard. With or without this…I think it would've happened eventually. I just wish it hadn't happened like this. I wish you hadn't done this, Kiba."

"Me, too," he said bitterly, all the fight drained out of him.

It was quiet, just the summer sun above them and the warm breeze between them. Everyone else had gone home already and the field was deserted, the only sound Kiba's somewhat labored breathing and her own racing heart, which to her ears sounded like thunder rolling through the mountains. It felt surreal, it felt _awful,_ but it was happening.

Too much had happened too quickly, and Sakura read the writing on the wall.

She bit her lip, then stood on tiptoe to press a tear-stained kiss to his cheek before her arms slid around his neck. His slipped around her waist and for a long time, they just held each other, Sakura knowing that even if this felt absolutely horrible, it was the right thing to do.

Kiba was warm again, though. He smelled like aftershave and her heart absolutely broke knowing this would be the last time.

"I'm sorry," she murmured, without knowing what she was apologizing for, or if she even should. She pulled back away from him, fixed her hair, anything to keep her hands moving so he wouldn't see the way they shook.

"It doesn't have to be this way," he almost begged. "Let's just…try again. Start fresh. Get back together, babe, come back."

She felt her resolve weaken, but this time, she couldn't let him drag her back. This relationship, for as happy as he'd made her, was falling apart long before the incident, and the constant back-and-forth was exhausting. No. She had to stand firm.

This had to be the last time.

"We can't," she whispered tearfully. "I can't. But I really hope…after I, um, get over this that…that we can still be…"

"Friends?" he laughed humorlessly. "I don't know, babe. I've seen you naked. Gonna be hard to forget about that."

She bit her lip anxiously, not wanting him to make light of this so soon, when things were so raw.

"But if that's all you'll give me," he finished, "then yeah. Take some time. I will, too. And…and we'll go from there. Get our old friendship back."

That sounded nice, if not a little bit impossible. She ran her fingers through her hair and nodded.

"I really am sorry, Sakura."

"I know. Me, too. I'll…I'll see you around, Kiba."

She turned away from him, wiping her cheeks furiously with the back of her hand, and headed towards the parking lot. Three minutes had quickly turned into thirty, and she wouldn't be at all surprised if the others had left by now rather than wait for her. Sure enough, Naruto's car was missing from the lot.

But standing in his usual slouched, too-good-for-everything position in the spot Naruto had parked in, was Sasuke. Alone, and clearly waiting for her.

"Ino had a doctor's appointment, so Naruto left a few minutes ago to take her," he mumbled in explanation.

"But you waited for me?" she asked, surprised and a little bit touched and definitely, _definitely_ seconds from breaking down completely. This unexpectedly kind gesture from Sasuke was going to push her over the edge, and she did _not_ want to turn into a wailing harpy in front of him, not when she felt inexplicably guilty around him for some reason.

"I'll walk you home," he muttered, managing cool apathy and impatience all at the same time.

She took one look at him, at his tall, lean, muscular frame, the arrogant tilt of his chin, his strong jaw and black hair tousled from his workout, and the fact that he was _there,_ and released a strangled sob before throwing her arms around his neck and bursting into tears.

He stiffened under her grasp, but to his credit, he didn't move away. One arm slid coolly around her waist, light but present, and she sobbed into his shirt all of her anger and sadness and bitterness and frustration. He was there when she needed somebody, the most unlikely person in the world to support her through a break-up everybody but her saw coming, quiet and standoffish as always but _there._

Kiba's cruel accusations rang through her mind, but she dismissed them immediately, absolutely unable to consider two boys into her cyclone of a mindset right now. She was done with boys for the time being, that much was certain. But she would fix her friendship with Sasuke, because she'd been a bad friend to him lately, and he deserved better from her.

"I'm sorry," she whimpered. "Sasuke I'm so so sorry. I've been such a shit friend to you, and…"

"Knock it off," he said arrogantly, his grip tightening a little, and sending a thrill of something coursing through her stomach that she refused to believe was butterflies. "What happened."

"He wanted…to fix things," she sniffled, inhaling the scent of his body wash and deriving a great deal of comfort from it. "To try again."

She decided not to mention the part where Kiba had accused her of being in love with Sasuke. She wasn't sure why she left it out, but under no circumstances could he be allowed to hear that particular rumor, unfounded and baseless as it was. If there was any chance at restoring their friendship, she couldn't ruin it by turning him off with the idea that she was looking for anything more.

Nope. Boys, all of them, would have to wait awhile, while she licked her wounds and tried to trust again.

Sasuke looked irritated at that, and she remembered his demand that she never give Kiba another chance.

"But I said no," she continued, and did she imagine the look of satisfaction on his gorgeous face? Probably, because this just didn't seem like the kind of thing Sasuke would be interested enough in to have a reaction towards. "No. I can't go back. I can't keep doing this. I can't trust him anymore and it _sucks,_ but I'm just so exhausted with it."

Her voice strengthened; her words were more for herself than for Sasuke anyway. And this felt _good_.

"We're never, ever getting back together."

* * *

It was hard for Sasuke to derive any satisfaction about Sakura's newfound resolution to stay away from Kiba, when she was so upset about the whole situation. A tiny iota of hope welled up inside him, but he tamped it down. There was no way she would be ready to pursue something else so suddenly, and especially not with him; they were still on somewhat shaky ground, and there was a lot of history between them as friends that might either really enhance a relationship, or really complicate one.

Either way, he was satisfied to be the one she held onto when she needed it.

She hugged him for a long time. He stopped counting the seconds and tried not to lose himself completely to the euphoria of having her so close to him. She smelled like cinnamon and something floral, and even though she'd been working out just as hard as he had been that morning, she looked perfectly well-kempt, untouched by the hot summer sun the way the rest of them were.

Fucking beautiful. He hated Kiba all over again. How the hell could he throw away a relationship with someone like Sakura, who was infuriating and obsessive and clingy and crazy, but easily the best girl in the world?

A few moments later, she wiped her eyes and pulled back away from him, looking a little stressed out but much, much calmer than she had been.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," she murmured.

She meant she was sorry he'd waited an extra half hour for her to walk her home, but Sasuke wondered if she knew he'd been waiting for her for over a year.

He wondered if he'd ever get to tell her.

"Let's get something to eat," he mumbled, turning away from her, hands in his pockets, heading off the school campus towards one of the cafés downtown. He didn't wait for her to reply, but hearing her quicken her pace to keep up with him brought the tiniest smirk to his face.

xoxox

"I think I need to go on a boy diet," she said thoughtfully, sitting across from him at the coffee shop. She picked apart her banana nut muffin, compulsively organizing it into equal-sized pieces.

"Boys don't diet," Sasuke retorted. A half-eaten bagel in front of him was testament enough to that, but Sakura just rolled her eyes. "And neither should you."

"That's not what I mean, lamebrain," she said, and he glared halfheartedly at the insult, but wasn't really mad. How could he be, when things felt like they were on the way back to normal between them? "I mean, I'm going on a diet _from_ boys. Like, a hunger strike. Only with boys."

"Stupid way to phrase it," he remarked.

"It's not my fault you can't think abstract." She popped a piece of muffin into her mouth and washed it down with a swig of cinnamon coffee. "Don't you think it's a good idea, though? So I can stop being this crazy boy-obsessed monster girl, and focus on school and my friends and shit, like I'm supposed to."

"Aa," he replied. "Coffee's watery as shit. I hate this place."

"They could fill textbooks with the things you hate," she countered dryly, and he spared her a withering glare. "Oh stop it, you know that was funny."

"You're nowhere near as funny as you think you are."

"Okay, so now you're hateful, you can't think out of the box, _and_ you lie right through your teeth. Keep it up, Sasuke."

Something about him absolutely loved the way she said his name. He had had more than a few fantasies involving her _screaming_ it, but they'd always been rudely cut off each time he remembered Sakura was sleeping with someone already, and that someone wasn't him.

"On some real shit, though," Sakura began, trailing off and looking a little bit uncomfortable as she averted her gaze. "Um. I feel like I owe you an apology."

He raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"I know that…well, we used to be like, really, really good friends, and…well, I still consider you a really good friend, of course, but it's not really…the same as it used to be. And I know a lot of it was my fault. I prioritized Kiba over pretty much everything else and I didn't think he'd be really comfortable with the idea of me having a guy best friend besides Ino, and…bottom line, I shouldn't have done that. Let him interfere with our friendship the way I did. So I'm really, really sorry, Sasuke. I know it's not enough or anything but I'm really really hoping we can fix things, and be best friends again. And whatever. And…"

"_Sakura._"

"Yeah?"

He smirked. "You're annoying."

It was a mean, nasty thing to say, but Sakura was not a typical girl, and theirs was not a typical friendship. Far from crumpling at his words, or letting them piss her off, Sakura smiled brilliantly, beautifully, reading exactly what he meant by them:

That yes, absolutely they could fix things.

"And you're a misanthrope," she retorted playfully.

"Ease up on those big words. You might choke on one."

"Very funny, asshole. Must've taken you all night to come up with that one."

"That's what she said."

"Careful with that joke; it's an antique!"

"Shut up, Sakura," Sasuke scoffed, but he couldn't suppress the amused smirk that lifted one corner of his lips.

xoxox

It was dark when he finally walked Sakura back to her house, both of them engaging in yet another debate about absolutely nothing, and it felt just like old times. Sakura was no longer despondent over her break-up, and now that she'd flat-out addressed and apologized for her hand in the distance between them lately, there was no residual awkwardness.

Even if she wasn't the only one to pull back from their friendship. Sasuke had done more than his share of avoiding her throughout the majority of her relationship with Kiba.

Her dads were waiting for her on the steps, Kakashi reading a small, well-worn book and Iruka typing away on his laptop.

"Hi, honey, how was your day?" Iruka greeted her first, looking up from his laptop to see them coming up the walkway. His smile faltered at the sight of Sasuke, a fact Sasuke did not miss, and he suppressed an eye roll with difficulty. If he ever had the chance to date Sakura when she was over her "boy diet," he didn't want one of her beloved dads to despise him.

"I'm on a boy diet," she answered. "Sasuke's my sponsor."

He rolled his eyes.

"Team's looking good this year, Sasuke," said Kakashi with a crinkle-eyed smile behind his allergy mask. "Should be plenty of scouts at the games once the season starts. Have you thought about where you'd like to go to college?"

"Yes," Sasuke replied, trying to keep his tone polite and interested, at least with the only father Sakura had that seemed to like him. "Konoha University, hopefully."

"That's where our Sakura wants to go as well," Kakashi said, smile presumably widening.

"What a coincidence," Iruka muttered almost spitefully.

Sasuke raised his eyebrows; Sakura, of course, was oblivious.

"Do you need me to drive you home?" she asked him with a solicitous smile. "I'm sure you're tired from practice and walking around all over town with me."

To be perfectly honest, Sasuke was the farthest thing from tired. He could have easily run all the way home and not even broken a sweat.

"Aa," he replied.

"Nice seeing you again, Sasuke," Kakashi said happily, ducking behind his book again. "Stop by anytime."

"Thank you," Sasuke tried not to mumble. "See you later." With that he followed Sakura to her car and slid into the passenger seat beside her.

"Dad wasn't in a great mood," Sakura remarked, referring to Iruka, as she pulled away from the sidewalk towards Sasuke's apartment building. "Wonder why. Probably had a bad day at work."

Sasuke suppressed a snort. She really didn't realize that Iruka hated him, did she?

"Thank God tomorrow's the last day of cheer camp." Sakura talked an awful lot, but he'd missed it so much in the months they'd been sort of fringe friends that he decided to let it go. She was a talker, and he was a listener, and that worked well for them, even if too much conversation was irritating.

Sakura wouldn't be Sakura if she wasn't constantly working his last nerve.

"I never told the other girls this, but I get really terrible motion sickness," she went on. "Like, I can ride any roller coaster in the world and not have any problem at all. But they flip me too much, and I want to vomit all over the world."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and flipped through his unanswered text messages. He had no idea how all the girls at school managed to secure his phone number, considering he'd only ever given it out to two: Sakura, of course, and her harpy best friend Ino. But he could always count on a flood of texts from unknown numbers and unknown girls, asking him out or offering to do things to him he wasn't entirely sure were legal.

"You're not even listening to me," Sakura whined. "I'm confessing a deep, dark secret to you here!"

"Makes no sense if you get motion sickness to let them throw you around like that," he replied instantly, deleting all the texts from unknown numbers and responding only to the one Naruto had sent him.

_You still with Sakura? ;)_

He ground his teeth together and drafted a quick reply.

_Fuck off._

"There are advantages and disadvantages to being abnormally small for my age," Sakura sighed. "Are you excited for school to start? I am."

"Geek," he said automatically, and when she glared at him from the driver's seat, he smirked.

"Sticks and stones can break your bones," she hissed.

"That's not the saying."

"Well, that's how I'm saying it. Hey, do you wanna go to the movies with me? I only saw The Dark Knight Rises four times."

"When."

"Now."

"Who's all going?"

"Me, stupid."

"You go to movies by yourself?" This was news to Sasuke; Sakura was a social butterfly, and never liked doing _anything_ alone, as far as he knew. "Loser."

"It's my quiet time!" she argued. "Boo. If you don't want to go, fine. I'll take you home and enjoy the rippling pectorals of Bane all by myself."

"Shut up. I'm going."

"You are?"

"You're driving, aren't you," he deadpanned.

She smiled brightly, and the sight of it made him feel warm inside, before he was instantly repulsed by himself and his own thoughts. He was Sasuke Uchiha. He was detached and apathetic and cool and remote; okay, yeah, he was in love with his friend, but he hid that fact pretty well, as far as he was concerned. Just looking at them, you'd think they look like friends and nothing beyond that. Sakura never seemed to guess, anyway.

But inside, he was shaping up to be as hopelessly romantic as _Lee._

Still. Looking at her now, it was impossible to reconcile the happy, upbeat, cheerful girl driving him not-so-against his will to the theater with the fragile, brittle-looking thing she'd been earlier, crying into his shirt and apologizing for things she never really did wrong.

Sasuke wondered if he was at least part of the reason for her cheerfulness.

And he wasn't an overly optimistic guy, but every last bit of him hoped that was true.

* * *

**note..** hi, t-swizzle fans! y'all spoiled me with reviews on this one so far. thank you so much! keep it up, please, because i love hearing from you, what you guys have to say and how you think i'm doing. i appreciate every single word you type, yafeelme. AND REVIEWS MAKE PEOPLE WRITE FASTER, DID YOU KNOW THAT.

well, reviews and whenever people have the time and inclination. but reviews do help.

oh. you yahoos in texas who think you're gonna secede: KNOCK IT OFF. we live in the usa and we're fucking lucky to be here. don't say you love our country and try to bounce. jerks.

AND I AM DONE. listen to your taylor swift :) songfics are against the rules, so i can't copy the shit down here. you guys have to do that yourselves. hope you liked chapter 3, see you soon!

xoxo daisy :)


	4. Begin Again

Begin Again

There was something really fantastic about the first day of school.

Maybe she was a nerd. Really, what kind of girl was _excited_ to go back to _school?_

But she couldn't help it. It was the first day of senior year, and it felt like it always did: like a fresh start. A clean slate. A chance to do everything over.

She examined her reflection optimistically, having woken up earlier than usual to devote some time to her hair. It hung in ringlets down her back, her bangs swept to one side. She wore a pair of high-waisted brown leather shorts and a loose-fitting cream-colored shirt tucked inside it, along with gladiator sandals and the worn-out, years-old bracelets on her wrist that she never took off. Her makeup was the way she liked it best: heavy eyeliner on her upper eyelids, nothing on her lower eyelids, and a pop of red on her lips. As hyper-critical as she was of her appearance typically, she couldn't find anything to complain about. Not on the first day of school, when it felt like no matter what she did today, something good was right around the corner.

Shoving thoughts of her current single status to the back of her mind, Sakura smiled at herself in the mirror and grabbed her backpack, having stocked it the night before with fresh notebooks and pens after her unexpected movie (she refused to call it a date) with Sasuke. It had felt just like old times, something else to contribute to her good mood this morning.

With a few spritzes of her favorite perfume, she almost skipped downstairs.

Her dads were sitting together at the kitchen table, Iruka working his way through a box of Lucky Charms, Kakashi leaning back in his chair reading the newspaper.

"Morning!" she sang.

"Morning, honey," Iruka said with a smile. "Don't you look fancy!"

"It's the first day of school," she said by way of explanation, pouring herself some coffee.

"I've said it before and I'll say it again, Iruka. Our daughter isn't normal." Kakashi smirked at her from beneath his allergy mask.

"Well your 'not normal daughter' is gonna be valedictorian this year thanks to this unnatural love of school," Sakura retorted smugly. "So unless you feel like paying my full tuition for me…quit teasing me and pass the milk."

Kakashi chuckled and did as she ordered; she added a liberal amount of milk to her coffee to kill the bitter taste, but when Iruka offered her some sugar, she shook her head.

"Milk but no sugar, huh?" Kakashi observed mildly, returning to his paper. "Isn't that how Sasuke takes his coffee?"

"Yeah, he got me hooked on it," Sakura replied, taking a sip of the steaming hot beverage and relishing its warmth. "Wait, that's creepy. Why do you memorize Sasuke's likes and dislikes?"

"Did you two have fun at the movies?" he asked, deflecting the question as always.

"Yeah, it was great. I mean, I've seen the movie before, but it gets better every time. I keep rooting for the bad guys. Sasuke hadn't seen it yet, though. He liked it, I guess. As much as Sasuke likes anything."

"I thought we had quite enough of discussing that punk over the breakfast table when you were in elementary school," Iruka sniffed.

Sakura rolled her eyes as she nursed her coffee. "I don't think you'll have to worry about psychotic, obsessive Sakura making her grand reappearance. Sasuke and I are friends."

Iruka scoffed. "Like friendship is all that's on that kid's mind," he mumbled under his breath.

Sakura frowned as she leaned back against the marble countertops. What was with everyone lately? She'd been single for all of two days, and already people were making unfounded insinuations about her and _Sasuke Uchiha_ of all people?

"I'm on a boy diet," she reminded him. "Remember? Every boy on the planet. Including and especially Sasuke. What's WITH everyone? He's about as interested in me as I am in…in cartography!"

"Sakura as pleased as I would be to have you remain on a boy diet for the rest of your natural born life," Iruka drawled, "let's not pretend that…"

"You know what?" she interrupted. "Let me just stop you there. Whatever weird tangent you and Daddy are about to go off on, can it please wait until _after_ the most important day of the year?"

"Is it my birthday already?" Kakashi quipped.

Sakura rolled her eyes and kissed him goodbye, along with Iruka. "Wish me luck!" she said brightly, and without missing a moment, she was out the door.

* * *

Locker 363, located at the far end of the senior hallway, was festooned with decorations when Sakura entered the building, and she beamed, even though it wasn't a surprise. Every year, the underclassmen on the cheerleading squad would decorate their captains' lockers as a special thank you for all the hard work coaching during the summer. Konoha colors, green and gold, spelled out Sakura's name in bright block letters, along with balloons, confetti, and pieces of candy (lollipops, her favorite) taped to the front.

It seemed like everything was going right today, she mused happily, twirling her new combination, and the locker door opened on the first try. Her hair fell perfectly, her makeup didn't smudge or streak on the walk to school, her locker looked even better than she thought it might…after such a godawful break-up, all this good karma and excellent energy was exactly what she needed.

Senior year was, after all, the most important year for a student. College applications, prom, graduation, not to mention the last full year she would have with all of her friends together in one place. She knew she would never be able to shake Ino, or Naruto, or Hinata, or most of her friends. She hoped Sasuke wouldn't be able to shake her, now that she was trying to earn back his friendship. But there was something about high school, something about a system that kept all of her loved ones together five days a week, sometimes weekends, that could never be duplicated once they were out in the Real World.

And Sakura was fully content to enjoy the hell out of her last year of high school, and delay entering the Real World until next June.

She hung up her backpack and jacket on the hook inside her locker, grabbed the textbooks and notebooks and pens she would need for each class before lunch, and shut it again; she plucked a pink lemonade lollipop from off the front and turned to head to home room.

"Kind of a cliché, isn't it?"

She looked around and smiled brightly as Sasuke fell into step beside her, looking as effortlessly handsome as always. She sometimes envied his completely accidental good looks, knowing he never tried for his artfully tousled hair, his smoldering eyes; she knew he worked out rigorously, but she doubted his goal was the washboard abs that rippled so delectably underneath the black V-neck T-shirt he was wearing…

Sakura giggled. Boy diet or no, was it so wrong to appreciate masculine beauty?

"What's a cliché?" she asked.

He smirked and nodded to her lollipop. "That you'd pick pink lemonade."

"Oh come on, you know I'm insecure about my hair!" she whined, without any force behind it, because she was in too good a mood to let Sasuke take a cheap shot at her odd hair color. "Pink lemonade isn't even my favorite, it's just the first one I grabbed."

Sasuke smirked.

"What's your first class?" she asked him, pausing outside her homeroom.

"Hn. AP Lit."

"Oh, me, too! I didn't know you were even bothering with an English this year."

"If I can get outta intro English in college, I'll do it," he said flatly, referring to the Advanced Placement exams held at the end of the school year. "See you then."

"Okay. Bye, Sasuke!"

The good feeling inside her expanded and expanded and expanded until she felt like she might explode from within. Unable to shake the wide smile from her face, she waved brightly to her classmates, as social as ever, greeting Hinata and hugging Suigetsu, and pointedly ignoring _Kiba,_ who sat sulking in the back of the room. She felt a slight twinge of unhappiness at his presence in her perfect day, but tamped it down, because today was really the start of something fresh and amazing.

The first day of school. A clean slate. A do-over. _Tabula rasa._

And no matter what, she wasn't going to screw it up this time around.

Senior year was going to be _amazing._

* * *

"Looks like their royal highnesses are back together again!" Naruto decreed from his seat next to Sasuke in homeroom.

Sasuke just looked at him, and Naruto laughed.

"You and Sakura, idiot. She breaks up with Kiba and what, you swoop in? It's looking like it used to, you know. You guys were together all the time."

"It's not like that," Sasuke muttered, staring out the window instead, even though he really wished it was. And Sasuke Uchiha wasn't the type to wish for anything; if he wanted something, he went out and made it his.

Sakura was a different matter, though. A delicate matter that would require subtlety, patience, and devotion, things he wasn't necessarily notorious for possessing, but things that he would need, because he'd wanted Sakura for _years._ It was his years-long lack of ability to interpret this basic fact that led to another guy swooping in on his territory, and he'd spent all of junior year soaked in bitterness and acrimony, cursing his own ineptitude.

But Kiba was out of the picture. Sakura was back on the market. And now that he knew exactly how he felt about her, he would have to find a way to win back the affection she'd felt for him in middle school.

"I'm just saying, dude. You both already have Homecoming all sewn up, even though I think I'd look better in the crown…"

"What does that have to do with anything."

"And you know you're gonna end up studying together all the time, like you used to. 'Studying' being a term I'd use loosely…"

"Again, irrelevant…"

"And everyone in the school knows you two hooking up is like, a _certainty._ Especially your creepy ass fan club. What're they calling themselves now?"

"Tch. They're disbanded. I complained to the principal last year."

Naruto laughed, reclining in his seat. "Good. They were fucking creepy."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and opened his schedule. First period was English. Then he had Calculus, followed by lunch, then PhysEd and Economics at the end of the day. Not terrible, but he resented having gym before another class, and having to show up sweaty and tired.

Was he excited about senior year?

Not particularly. Sasuke Uchiha was rarely excited about anything, preferring to approach most situations with caution and apathy, at least on the outside.

He was, on the other hand, eager to get started on this final phase of the high school journey. Captain of the football team, captain of the basketball team, captain of the baseball team, all things he'd worked hard for the last three years to achieve. He would need to focus on college applications as well, not to mention enjoying the social life, because senior year was a party and not even detached Sasuke wanted to miss out on it. And of course, there was the tricky, difficult matter of the only girl he'd ever been able to tolerate, and how he was supposed to shake her off her boy diet and win her heart that he would have to handle…

He smirked. He wouldn't say _excited,_ but he was definitely…eager.

* * *

Damn if she didn't look prettier than ever. That was all he could really focus on as they headed to lunch together, Sakura chatting away about their first English assignment of the year: an essay on Beowulf, and how she was going to write it. He nodded along at the pauses, effected the appropriate amount of clinical detachment from the situation, but all he could concentrate on was Sakura's annoying beauty.

She was definitely the type of girl to get excited about the first day of school, and went all-out as a result. But there was an effortlessness to the whole picture as well; he knew Sakura could roll out of bed, throw on some sweats and show up as the prettiest girl in school. So when she chose to devote extra time and energy to her appearance, she drove him almost to distraction.

Sasuke was not without fantasies about his friend. Just because he'd never displayed them to anyone did not mean he was entirely devoid of hormones. If anything, they raged fiercer than ever when she was around, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to convince everyone that he wasn't, dare he say it, _longing_ for her. Her skin was soft, he knew, and her body was tight and curvy where he wanted it to be, and she was flexible as hell from years of dance and cheerleading, and…

He sighed, irritated with himself for his inability to curb this enthusiasm for Sakura's body. There was more to her than just a pretty face, and he wanted the whole package.

"I can't stand Beowulf," she moaned to him as they stepped in line for lunch.

"You've read it?"

"No. I just know I'll hate it."

"You didn't even give it a chance, you're just deciding you hate it?"

"I know I will."

"Self-fulfilling prophecy."

"Exactly. So I know what to expect." She smirked up at him, satisfied with her argument, and he settled for rolling his eyes and snatching the last soft pretzel off the rack just as she was reaching for it. At her withering glare, he smirked right back and proceeded towards the salad bar.

"Sakura! Sasuke! Over here!"

Sasuke looked up and saw Ino waving at them from the table in the corner of the cafeteria, by the windows. This was their table since freshman year; everyone knew to avoid it except those 'fortunate' enough to sit there. Everyone was already gathered: Ino, Shikamaru, Sai, Chouji, Naruto, and Hinata. Kiba was conspicuously absent, not that Sasuke expected him to be all buddy-buddy with everyone just yet, but that left extra room for Chouji's arsenal of snacks; Shino, his best friend, was gone, too, obviously in a show of support. He and Sakura sat down in their usual seats, beside one another, and started in on their first lunch of senior year.

"Yo, you guys, party at my place this weekend," Naruto was saying as Sasuke bit into his soft pretzel, already regretting his choice, because the school pretzels were always hard as rocks and damn near inedible. "Jiraiya's gonna be away doing research for his next 'culinary masterpiece.'"

"You mean 'literary masterpiece,' Naruto," Sakura said, clearly unable to stop herself from correcting diction at every opportunity, one of her many shortcomings.

"You sure? The old man said something about eating out at different places, and…"

"Enough, Naruto," Shikamaru sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Already troublesome."

"Hinata, you gonna come?" Naruto asked her directly, ignoring Shikamaru entirely. "I know your dad's real strict and whatever."

Hinata blushed into her pudding cup. It was obvious, even to someone as romantically challenged as Sasuke, that the poor girl was head over ass for his dunce of a best friend, though he couldn't possibly guess why. Her inability to confess her feelings to the person she cared about grated on his nerves.

"I'll…try," she said, hiding behind a curtain of black hair.

"We'll break you out, boo," Ino promised with a smug smirk in Sakura's direction. "Won't we, Forehead?"

"Absolutely, Hogulous. Just tell your dad you're staying over at my house." Sakura fished a stray red grape from out of her fruit cup and popped it into her mouth; Sasuke pointedly looked away, frustrated. "It won't need to be a lie. We can head there after the party's over."

"Or you can just crash at my place," Naruto suggested. "Lee's bringing some liquor so I'm sure we'll all be fucked up by the end of the night, if you guys don't wanna drive or walk all the way to Sakura's."

Hinata blushed even further. Sasuke noticed a knowing smile flitter across Sakura's face before she said, "All right, that sounds good, too. Still, Hinata, just let your dad know you're staying with me. He likes my dads."

"How 'bout you, Sasuke?" Naruto asked. "You gonna come?"

"Hn."

"Come on, it'll be fun!" Sakura coaxed him with a winning smile. "I need a pong partner."

"What is 'pong'?" asked Sai, a well-intentioned but socially-inept senior who'd transferred to Konoha from Root High School two years prior. "Is that a euphemism for sexual intercourse? Are you looking for someone to satisfy you sexually, Ugly, now that you have separated from the Hound?"

Sasuke resented the implications of Sai's speech. He knew the poor kid couldn't help it, having been so absurdly sheltered his whole life, but there was _so much wrong_ with what he was saying. Sakura, Ugly? Sai might be socially backwards, but that didn't make him _blind._

She had a lot more patience for Sai than Sasuke did, however, and just sighed curtly in annoyance.

"No. Pong is a game you play with beer, or some kind of liquor if you're badass like me, and red Solo cups and a ping pong ball," she explained. "You have to sink the ball into a cup of liquor on the other team's side and if you do, they have to drink. The object is…well, you want to nail all your balls."

"That's what she said," Naruto snickered.

The girls all laughed; Sasuke rolled his eyes and snatched a pineapple piece from Sakura's fruit cup, ignoring her scandalized expression as he popped it into his mouth. The pretzels at Konoha High School might suck a giant dick, but at least the fruit was fresh.

"Sasuke and Sakura _never lose_ at pong," Naruto said. "Remember Temari's graduation party a couple years ago?"

Shikamaru groaned at the memory, while Sasuke smirked. He and Sakura had banded together in a pong tournament and come out victorious; they'd made the horrible decision to use straight vodka in the cups instead of beer, which resulted in the losers getting bombed and vomiting all over the Sabaku household. Gaara was still pissed about it.

Sasuke chanced a glance at Sakura, and to his surprise (and pleasure, though he'd never admit it out loud), he saw that she was looking at him. There was a soft smile on her face, and a pretty blush to her cheeks. When he caught her staring, her blush darkened, and she quickly looked away.

Sasuke wasn't one to read too much into things, but he felt pretty good about whatever _that_ was.

* * *

The school day was over, and Sasuke, laden down with homework and a bit tired already, headed over to football practice. Camp was over, but the season was starting in two weeks, which meant that the team would need to buckle down and play harder than ever. Konoha High School had an excellent athletics program, and like hell would he fail in their winning tradition.

Nearing the locker rooms, he saw the girls on the cheerleading squad gathered outside their lockers, squealing over something. He sighed and sidestepped them, but noticed out of the corner of his eye Sakura in the middle of the group, wearing the new cheerleading uniform and looking particularly pleased with herself.

"Looks hot, right?" she giggled to the other girls, spinning in place to model it for them. It was much shorter and much tighter than the cheerleading skirts and sweaters of old, he noticed, his eyes practically feasting on her in the hallway, but was it his fault she chose a public place to model that…that _thing_ masquerading as an appropriate uniform? It consisted of a white sleeveless top that stopped above her navel, revealing a piercing he couldn't remember her ever telling him about, and a matching white pleated skirt that left astonishingly little to the imagination. Sasuke was already rewarded with the occasional glimpse of the tiny shorts she wore underneath the standard skirt whenever she was flipped in the air and her legs slid apart; this was going to make his job of subtly creeping on her infinitely easier.

He was almost in the clear, at his own locker room, when the object of his (obsession) affection called after him.

"Hey, Sasuke!"

Grimacing, he turned to find her prancing towards him in her tiny uniform, fully aware of how cute she looked. "We got our new uniforms today!" she said needlessly, spinning around quickly so the pleats in her skirt caught the wind, and he got that rewarding glimpse of her thighs underneath. "You like?"

"Put some clothes on, Sakura," he muttered.

She laughed.

"I actually had a reason for coming over here besides showing off this fucking outstanding ensemble. You know I avoid the boys' locker room like the plague. It smells like feet and putrification."

"What, Sakura?" he asked impatiently. "I have practice."

"I was wondering if you'd give me a ride home after we're done? We get done at like, the same time, right? And I walked here because it was a nice day this morning, but now it looks like rain. And Ino's skipping practice today and she's normally my ride, and none of the other girls have cars, and…"

"Fine."

"Thanks, you're the best!" she said happily. "I owe you dinner or some shit. Wanna get souvlaki tonight?"

Greek food at a Greek café was not a date. Sasuke reminded himself that his relationship with Sakura had to be platonic for right now. Things were too raw after her break-up, and they were well on their way to restoring their friendship, but they had a ways to go. And Sasuke wanted to do this right. He didn't want to be Sakura's rebound.

He wanted to be to her exactly what she was to him: everything.

Even if it was just in secret.

"Fine," he bit out, like to even talk to her was a serious imposition. "Go change out of that and leave me alone, I got work to do."

It wasn't a date.

They were just friends.

But with any luck, a little patience, and some badly-needed good karma, maybe they could become something more.

* * *

**note..** so, this chapter's song is 'begin again.' fitting, right? kind of. whatever.

sakura's still recovering from her break-up with kiba, which is why she's a bit slow on the uptake towards sasuke and the potential for a relationship with him. also they have kind of a history, which i'll get into soon, so hang in there. you know me by now. i guarantee a happy ending. :) and a long, long, long path towards it because i can't edit myself for shit.

setting up for some new things. please let me know what you thought! i love your opinions. they're fuel for my writing engine, or whatever. sorry, y'all. i'd be funnier with my little quips and shit if i wasn't so inebriated.

xoxo,

drunky.


	5. Superman

Superman

To Kiba's credit, he made himself scarce over the next few weeks, which Sakura begrudgingly appreciated.

She missed him, missed his company, missed kissing him, but it was getting easier and easier to be without him. And every day, it felt more and more like the right choice, to end things between them, for as much as it hurt.

And she had so much else going on, between school, cheerleading, all her friends, and college applications, that it was nothing at all to completely distract herself every time she started to feel down about what happened. She didn't hate Kiba, but she didn't want him back, either.

The first football game of the season was tomorrow, Friday the 13th, which Sakura didn't feel good about. Deep down, she was superstitious, but the real reason she felt so uneasy was because the season opener was against Konoha's main rival: Oto Senior High School.

Their rivalry was fierce, maybe the fiercest in the entire division, and friendly competition took a nose dive towards high-octane ugliness whenever they played against each other in any competitive sport, but football was always the worst. She remembered how last year, during the championship game, Oto's offense had swarmed Sasuke, the quarterback, with the express intent of taking him out of the game. Konoha's defense scrambled to protect him, but the end result was Sasuke in the hospital with a broken arm, and the referees ruled it fair.

Sakura was still angry about that.

Not to mention, and this she wouldn't tell Sasuke, Naruto, or any of her other friends on the football team, the Oto guys were complete _creepers_ to the cheerleading squad. Whenever they set up near the cheerleaders, she always heard them whistling, catcalling from behind their helmets, and the treatment continued if they ever passed on the way to their buses. Sometimes Sakura would be flattered when a cute boy gave her the once-over, and maybe she was just biased because she disliked Oto on principle, but she always felt uncomfortable when their paths crossed.

_The downside to having so many guy friends,_ she thought wistfully, changing into her uniform in the locker room with the other girls, _is that you can't really tell them the things that bother you, because they'll take it as a chance to prove their masculinity and go way, way too far with it._

She knew exactly what would happen if she mentioned the situation to the boys. They would get themselves into a fight, which, she suspected, was exactly what Oto wanted. Sasuke, especially. He was bar none the best quarterback in the division, and could put the ball wherever he wanted it. He played cunning, ruthless football, but he also played fair. Baiting him into a fight would lead to his suspension from the team, which Sakura knew he couldn't afford, with senior year being the year football scouts came to the games looking to dish out scholarships.

"Forehead," Ino said, sitting down next to her best friend as she laced up her shoes. "First off: I can't believe Coach Kurenai didn't flip shit when she saw your belly button ring."

Sakura giggled. "She said I could wear it if I wanted to, but if it got torn out of my stomach when I was doing an aerial, it was my own fault and I'd better stick the landing anyway."

Ino laughed, too; their cheerleading coach was a tolerant woman, but demanded high quality performances from her girls, before dishing her second piece of gossip.

"Also: I passed the field on my way here…guess who showed up to our practice."

Sakura frowned. "Who?"

"Oto's entire offense," Ino reported. "They're hanging around behind the fence. Like, waiting for us."

"For us? Are you sure they're not here to like heckle the guys?"

"If they were, wouldn't they be at the stadium? They know where the boys play; they know the field by the tennis courts is our spot. They're fucking gross, Sakura."

"Let's just ignore them," Sakura decided diplomatically. "And we'll tell the girls to ignore them, too. If they see we're not reacting, they'll get bored and leave."

"This is _Oto._ You know they'll stay till they work us up."

"If so, we'll take care of it ourselves."

"You don't think we should tell the guys? Naruto would flip shit if he found out the "sacred honor of his ladies" was being threatened. And Sasuke, naturally, would tear Abumi's arms off if he knew how gross he is to you."

Sakura thought of the Oto quarterback, a kid named Zaku Abumi, who seemed to show particular interest in her, and shuddered as she tied her hair up in a neat ponytail.

"They've got enough to worry about," she said flatly. "You know Oto's only in this to start a fight. If the guys get caught fighting, they'll be thrown off the team. Not only will we lose every single game without Sasuke, Naruto, Shikamaru, Sai, and Chouji…"

"And Kiba, even if you hate him," Ino chimed in.

"I don't _hate_ him. But not only will we lose every game, the boys could lose their chance at a scholarship. You know they'd overreact to the situation."

"I guess you're right. But mark my words, my beautiful Forehead, if they get handsy, deal's off and I go get 'em, yafeelme?"

"Yes, pigulous."

xoxoxox

Coach Kurenai was at a doctor's appointment that afternoon, a monthly check-up, since she was about eight months' pregnant. Sakura reflected that this was maybe the worst possible time to leave the squad in the hands of herself and Ino; Kurenai would never have allowed the Oto football players to stalk their practice session the way they were doing now.

While the girls all warmed up, Abumi and his friends whistled through the chain link fence, calling over to different girls, making suggestive comments about the way they did their splits. Sakura clenched her teeth and ignored them as best as she could, but it was impossible not to hear her name chorused louder and more frequently than the others.

"Hey, _Sakura,_" Zaku drawled to her back. "Nice view."

Her eyes narrowed, but she fought for professionalism as she faced her subordinates.

"Let's run through 'Let's Go Gold,'" she ordered, referencing Konoha's favorite fight song. She bent down to press play on the CD player, and was greeted with a predictable chorus of whistles.

"Even _nicer_ view," Zaku sneered. "Come on over, Sakura. Haven't seen you since last year."

The girls looked very uncomfortable, but at Sakura's reassuring nod, they started their cheer; she herself had had enough, and stomped over to the fence, deciding to put an end to this garbage once and for all.

"I'd think you'd be taking this time to practice," she said coldly, her eyes on Zaku. "Considering how badly we smoked your baseball team last time we played."

"Ooh, kitty likes to scratch," he snickered. "Is that the thanks I get? Coming all this way to see you?"

"Get out of here," she ordered. "All of you. You're gross, and you're distracting my girls."

The other guys laughed at her commandment, causing her face to flush with white-hot anger, and Zaku spoke for them. "Make us."

"This isn't funny," she snapped. "You assholes really have nothing better than to do than creep on a bunch of girls? Whatsamatter, Oto girls not cute enough for you?"

"Matter of fact, baby, that's exactly right," Zaku smirked. "How 'bout you ditch this, uh, _practice,_ and come with me? I'll help you work on your split."

Sakura's eyes _flamed,_ and she snapped, "I'd rather be dead."

He laughed again. Sakura's temper was notorious in its volatility, and Zaku seemed to enjoy how angry he was making her, but what could she do? They were on the other side of the fence, technically off Konoha property, so they were technically not breaking any rules. And this field was the only place the cheerleaders could practice that wasn't already being used by another team.

"I don't get why you're so offended, baby. Is it such a big deal to find you attractive?"

"You put Sasuke in the hospital last year," Sakura hissed. "You're all a bunch of…"

"Oh that's what this is about! Your boyfriend. Come on, baby. It's football. People get hurt all the time."

"Yeah, when you tackle them as a team!"

"Boyfriend?" echoed Zaku's linebacker, a hulking, beastly kid named Dosu, who wore an unfriendly grin on his face that made her nervous. "I thought Sakura Haruno was slamming Inuzuka, their wide receiver."

Sakura's blush deepened, and tears of anger and hate burned in her eyes as she caught where they were going with this. Zaku smirked.

"Guess Sakura likes to share," he drawled. "That's okay, baby. We like to share, too."

With that, he slid his fingers through the chain link fence, and flicked the ring in Sakura's belly button.

And she absolutely lost it.

* * *

Sasuke wrapped tape around his middle and ring finger, binding them together. Jammed fingers hurt like a bitch; he was just lucky that his throwing hand was in good shape.

Satisfied with the temporary fix-up, he laced up his cleats and headed out towards the stadium to meet with his team.

This first game was maybe the most important one of the season, at least on a personal level. The rivalry with Oto Senior High was fierce and bitter, and he hadn't forgotten the season-ending injury they'd given him last year, a real cheap shot that luckily occurred at the end of the playoffs, rather than at the beginning. He took Konoha's loss to heart, though, and vowed that he wouldn't allow a repeat of last year for any reason.

Sasuke devalued anyone who played grimy football. It was a rough, violent sport by nature; he considered the addition of these underhanded tactics the equivalent of violating the rules of war. There had to be some dignity in it, some honor, and every other team in the division, from Suna to Ame and everywhere in between, felt the same way he did. You gave it your all when you played, but you didn't cross the line, and you respected your opponents.

The Konoha-Oto rivalry was so dangerous because there was no mutual respect.

He smirked as he readied himself for the last practice before the game. Even with all these high stakes, there was nothing Sasuke loved more than competition. And he knew, hands down, no one on the Oto team could take him in a fair fight.

"Sasuke! _Sasuke!_"

He paused, turning around, and to his surprise he found Ino, running towards him looking frustrated and upset.

"What's wrong?" he asked warily.

"Sakura didn't want me to tell you," Ino said hesitantly, fanning herself with her hand, "but…"

At the mention of Sakura, Sasuke's attention was caught. "But what?"

"Abumi and his teammates are creeping on our rehearsal," she said. "They're being really, really gross and they won't listen to us. Sakura went to talk to them, but they're laughing it off, and I saw Zaku flick her belly ring, and I told her if they got handsy I was coming to get you, and…"

Sasuke had heard quite enough. He thought his hatred for Zaku Abumi peaked when he'd gotten his arm broken the year before, but this certainly eclipsed that.

"Go get Naruto and the others," he ordered flatly, turning sharply away from the stadium and taking off at a run for the cheerleaders' practice field.

A division rivalry was one thing. It heightened school spirit, and fanned the flames of competition, and there was nothing wrong with that. But Oto took it too far; they always did. And Sasuke was a firm believer that girls should be left out of the dangerous enmity that existed between their schools.

He was at the cheerleaders' practice in no time at all. The girls were huddled together looking nervous, and when one of them saw him coming, she called over, "Sasuke! Thank God you're here, they're all being gross!"

"Where's Sakura?" he demanded.

"Over there, by the fence, trying to talk to them, but they're not listening to her!"

He glanced over to where the girl was pointing, and saw seven of Oto's football players gathered behind the fence, while a tiny girl with a bright pink ponytail was screaming at them from the other side. His eyes narrowed, and he shot over to the scene in two seconds.

"Sakura," he said sharply.

She turned around and to his anger, he saw tears of frustration in her eyes. "Sasuke!" she said in surprise. "What're you doing here?"

"Ain't it obvious, Sakura?" Zaku sneered. "Boyfriend #2's here to defend his girl!"

Sasuke grabbed her wrist and pulled her back behind him, facing the other quarterback with hate in his black eyes. "Get out of here," he ordered, his voice quiet and dark.

"We're just taking in the sights," Zaku replied with fake innocence, and Sasuke didn't miss the way his gaze kept flickering to Sakura. It infuriated him like nothing else in the world, but he fought to keep his temper in check, knowing he was much scarier when calm.

"Don't make me say it again," he hissed.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry. I forgot she was your girl. Even though, my man here says she's been letting the wide receiver plow her over the past year…"

Sasuke felt Sakura flinch behind him, and his fingers locked into fists subconsciously. All at once, Zaku's reason for being here became clear.

He was using Sakura to rile him up. Get under his skin.

And it was _working._

"I've put guys like you in the hospital for saying less than that," Sasuke snarled, slamming his fist into the chain link fence to force Zaku to back away.

Sakura seized him by the arm and yanked him back with surprising strength. Glaring furiously at her, he saw her eyes were wide and frightened, but he sensed that the fear was not for herself.

"Don't get into it with him," she whispered heatedly. "He's trying to get you to fight him, so Coach Gai throws you off the team!"

She'd clearly thought about this in advance. Which had to mean that this wasn't the only time something like this had happened. Remembering Ino's admission that Sakura hadn't wanted him to know, he had to wonder what the hell was really going on here, and why the hell Sakura would keep it from him.

But there would be time for that later, after he smashed Abumi's face and reminded him what happened to people who fucked with his girl.

"HEY! SASUKE!"

The sound of running feet behind him alerted him to the fact that Ino had rounded up the others. It sounded like she'd brought the whole football team with her, instead of just their friends. A pregame scuffle between Konoha and Oto was bound to attract everyone, he reasoned; Abumi and his friends looked suddenly wary when they realized they were vastly outnumbered.

Naruto, who'd called out, drew up beside him, looking pissed.

"Whatsamatter, Abumi?" he sneered. "Too afraid of our offensive line to fuck with us, so you have to pick fights with cheerleaders?"

"Not a chance, Uzumaki," snapped Dosu. "We're gonna crush you all tomorrow."

"Then we'll see you _then,_" Naruto shot back. "At _your_ field. You don't need to come to ours and harass our girls."

Sasuke fought to control his temper, but it was a losing battle, even with all their friends there to support him. There was something viciously, unforgivably _wrong_ about using a guy's girl to get to him, even if that girl didn't realize that's what in fact she was. Maybe Sakura was oblivious, but it was clear even to their rivals from another school that there was only one girl who could elicit such a strong reaction from Sasuke Uchiha.

She was a weakness. A vulnerability.

And she didn't even see the effect she had on him.

"All right," Zaku said smoothly. "We'll see you douchebags tomorrow, at our school. And fair warning, Uchiha: we took you out last year and we can do it again."

Sasuke, unaffected by the threat, merely smirked coldly in anticipation. This only added to the thrill of competition, this added personal shit: now he was not only fighting for himself and Konoha and tradition, but because Oto had crossed a line when it came to Sakura.

Zaku and his teammates then shuffled away towards their own cars; only when they'd driven off with a squeal of tires did Sasuke round on Sakura.

"What didn't you tell me?" he demanded.

She flushed and grabbed his arm again, pulling him away from the crowd of Konoha football players and cheerleaders to a secluded spot underneath one of the trees.

"It's not like…like I wanted to keep secrets from you!" she said hotly. "It's that I knew you'd react like you did just now!"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Oto's been creepy towards all of us ever since freshman year," she snapped, putting her hands on her hips. "Every single time we see them, they say something gross to us, or whistle, or try and touch us just to rile us up. I knew if I told you that, you and the other guys would start a fight, and you'd get in trouble!"

"So it's better that they _sexually harass you?_"

"You could lose out on a scholarship if they bench you for fighting!" she yelled. "Don't you get it?!"

"No. What I _get_ is that you need to let me take care of shit like this."

Sakura paused, blinking in confusion at his words, and he felt his ears burn, but he stood his ground. Aware that the others were trying to listen in, he snapped quietly, "Leave it alone. Stay out of shit like this. You understand?"

She bit her lip, then nodded curtly in defeat.

xoxoxox

The bus ride to Oto was long and annoying; Konoha had to go caravan style, with the first and second teams, their coaches, the marching band, the flag corps, and the cheerleaders. Like every other player in existence, Sasuke preferred home games. No travel, no fuss, and plenty of Konoha High School supporters.

After the intense championship game the year before, though, the Konoha students and their families seemed to rally together and showed up in huge numbers at Oto Stadium. The heated rivalry made for way more exciting sport, and not even the fifty-mile journey was too big an obstacle for Konoha fans. The stadium was deafening, Sasuke could hear the shouts and cheers and jeers and boos from the locker room where he and the other guys were changing.

"All right, men!" said Coach Gai, standing at the front door with his chest puffed out, eagerness written all over his face. "First game of the season! I expect nothing less than the fire of youth from all of you!"

Sasuke smirked as the other guys cheered, getting themselves pumped up. Now fully decked out in football pads, his cleats tight, tape around his jammed fingers and adrenaline coursing through him, he remembered exactly why he loved this sport so much. It was hard, it was violent, it was intense and exhausting and heated and devastating, and he loved every goddamn minute of it. He and Gai and the assistant coaches had worked up plenty of really good plays he was eager to test on his division enemies. There would likely be talent scouts in the audience tonight, not to mention a certain cheerleader he wouldn't mind impressing with a few well-executed throws.

"Then let's go!" Gai shouted. "KONOHA ON THREE! ONE, TWO, THREE!"

"_KONOHA!"_ the team bellowed, and Sasuke, holding his helmet under his arm, led them in a charge onto the field.

The lights were blinding, the screams deafening, and it felt a lot like coming home to him, as his cleats dug into the freshly-mown grass; the team made their way towards their endzone, where the Konoha cheerleaders were holding the giant poster they would run through.

Sasuke wouldn't say he was _looking_ for her, but it wasn't his fault pink hair stuck out like a sore thumb. She looked gorgeous, glitter on her eyelids, her ponytail sleek and perfect, her body killer in the tiny uniform, and a smile as bright as the lights overhead lit up her face when she saw him.

He smirked back at her, unable to help himself, caught up in the euphoria of being seventeen and on top of the world. He slid his mouthguard in place, jammed his helmet on top of his head, and led the team through the banner. It tore with a satisfying rip on impact, and just like that, the season had begun.

* * *

**note..** happy thanksgiving! i'm very, very, very thankful for all of you who read and review and enjoy these stories of mine, so here's an early update to show my gratitude!

anyway. i like using zaku as a villain because he is unabashedly evil and there's nothing redeeming about him. song is "Superman." go listen if you haven't heard it. :)

love you guys. go eat!

xoxo daisy :)


	6. Everything Has Changed

Everything Has Changed

There wasn't anything in the world Sakura loved more than a high school football game.

The atmosphere was always charged with this palpable kind of energy. The thrill of competition, the agony of defeat, the emotional investment in the outcome of something that sounds so silly on the surface. She was in her element here, in her cute little uniform (that nearly gave her fathers twin heart attacks) with her best friend and the girls they were in charge of, calling out cheers until she was hoarse, flying through the air until she was nauseous, dancing and moving and flipping and spinning to get the audience as interested as she was.

It was dark now, the houselights shining bright enough to illuminate everyone on the field and off. She and the other cheerleaders were set up at the 50-yard line facing the Konoha supporters, who showed up in equal numbers as the hosting Oto fans. Sakura loved that best of all. The audience's involvement in the action heightened everything, made the players play harder, added an additional layer of excitement to a game already fraught with it.

Giggling to herself, in love with her life at the moment, she turned back to the field to see Konoha on offense. Sasuke, the quarterback, called out something she couldn't make out to his offensive line as the ball was snapped into his waiting hands. Her eyes locked on the capable way his fingers locked around the football, a strong, protective grip, and against her will, she was reminded of the confrontation yesterday with Zaku and the other players. How his hand was strong but surprisingly warm around her wrist, pulling her out of the way.

_I could've handled it myself,_ she thought, blushing a little as she recalled the sight of his strong, broad back standing between herself and a perceived threat. _He didn't need to pull the chauvinistic hero-saves-the-damsel-in-distress card. It's so tired._

It was so like Sasuke, to go way, way out of his way to answer the call of duty, then act like it was some huge imposition. He was an exercise in contradictions, and as she watched him throw the ball with astonishing speed and accuracy into Shikamaru's arms, she realized that on this green earth, there was no one she understood _less_ than Sasuke Uchiha.

"Hey, Forehead!" Ino shouted. She looked around and realized the others had already set up for one of their cheers. "Quit ogling the QB and get your hot little ass into formation!"

Sakura blamed her blush on the warm evening and the hot houselights, and flipped Ino off before seizing her pompoms and joining her at the front of the squad.

"I was not ogling anyone!" she hissed cattily as they led the cheerleaders and audience in a Konoha cheer.

"You were eyeing Sasuke like he was on the menu," Ino sneered back. The glitter on her eyelids caught the light and she seemed to shimmer, and Sakura mused that if anyone was really in her element right now, it was blonde, blue-eyed Ino Yamanaka. "Oh, and don't think he wasn't eyeing you right back. It's been weeks since you and Kiba broke up. How about that rebound, huh?"

"We're just friends."

Sakura had repeated this statement so much lately that the words were starting to sound weird. And somehow, 'just friends' felt like a diluted, watered-down version of her relationship with Sasuke. She couldn't put her finger on it, because she didn't like Sasuke _that_ way and knew that he didn't like her in return, so there was no real reason for her to feel like 'just friends' didn't cut it anymore. But the feeling was there, and until she could understand it properly, she wasn't about to dissect it with Ino, and returned her concentration to the game and her cheers.

At the end of the first quarter, Coach Gai called the players over to the sidelines for a quick break and pep talk. Sakura's eye was drawn, with frightening frequency lately, to Sasuke, who removed his helmet and shook the sweat from his hair. This time, she couldn't blame the blush on anything but a quick, sudden, inescapable attraction.

Okay, so Sasuke was attractive. Anyone could look at his six-foot-two _jacked as a motherfucker_ build, his deep, smoldering black eyes, his artfully messy hair and the god-like bone structure in his perfect face, and say that. And there was nothing wrong with being attracted to Sasuke Uchiha, since it seemed to be par for the course.

But 'just a physical attraction' felt just as empty as 'just friends.' And that terrified her, because she knew what came next.

Sasuke didn't seem to notice her staring, which suited her fine. He took orders from the coach, who was currently praising them on their two-touchdown lead going into the second quarter. She liked him best when he was in his intense game mode, all business, eyes steady, jaw set, like he was ready for anything.

She understood completely why most girls fell for the high school quarterback. If they all looked like Sasuke Uchiha, anyway.

Unfortunately, her moment of intense concentration was broken by the Oto offense resetting at the 50-yard line, where she and the other girls were. Sakura glared as Zaku made eye contact from behind his football helmet; through the cage-guard around his mouth, she saw him smirking at her. Her eyes narrowed.

"Lookin' good, Sakura, baby," he called out. "Maybe if Uchiha lets you off your leash tonight you can come with us." He gestured to the other players as they set up. "We'll show you a good time."

If the way Sasuke swerved around to glare at Zaku was any indication, Sakura guessed that he must have heard him. She didn't know if she was flattered at Sasuke's protectiveness or irritated by it.

Gai dismissed the players back to the field, and they kicked off the second quarter. Zaku pulled the ball and prepared to snap, but to Sakura's malicious glee, Naruto dodged the Oto line and slammed into him with enough force to send them both reeling to the ground. The first sack of the season, on a dick who couldn't have deserved it more.

"Defense!" she screamed, reinspired by Naruto's vengeful strike. "Defense!"

The audience, and the other cheerleaders, echoed her cheer. Naruto got up off the ground without the sportsmanlike favor of helping Zaku up as well, then threw up two thumbs to the Konoha fans, who absolutely lost it in excitement.

Sakura, despite her original satisfaction that Zaku Abumi got what he deserved, felt a stab of uneasiness. Oto was never known to play honorable football, and there were bound to be repercussions for Naruto's victory. She glanced worriedly at Sasuke before turning her back on the game to lead the crowd in the fan favorite, "Let's Go Gold."

xoxoxox

At halftime, the players and cheerleaders were dismissed for twenty minutes to regroup, while the marching band took the field to play for the crowd. Sometimes Sakura liked to hang around and watch the show, but she didn't miss Sasuke's meaningful nod to the fences as the second quarter ended. Understanding, she stashed her pompoms and pulled on her green-and-gold track jacket before jogging over to meet him.

He was sweaty and he looked tired, but still ready for anything. Almost immortal, in the way that high school heroes are, like nothing can tear them down. She fought a smile but couldn't suppress it as she reached him by the fences.

"Hey!" she said happily. "You were amazing, Sasuke!"

And he was. Konoha had scored three touchdowns to Oto's only field goal, two of which he'd run in himself, and he had yet to throw an interception. Magnificent by anyone's standards, except maybe Sasuke's, since he shrugged off her praise like it was nothing.

"What did Abumi say to you?" he demanded.

She sighed. This again? "You heard him. Nothing out of the ordinary. Don't worry about it."

"I'm gonna kick his ass," Sasuke decided, with all the arrogant self-assurance of a guy who did what he said he was going to do, repercussions be damned.

"I said don't _worry_ about it," she ordered. She caught the way he was fiddling with two fingers on his left hand, and seized his wrist to examine it. The middle and ring finger were jammed, she noticed, taking note of the slight swelling and how they seemed locked in place, and the tape he'd tied around them was coming loose. "Worry about yourself, and keeping Shikamaru interested enough to catch another pass for you."

As she gave him a pep talk of her own she was certain he didn't need or want, she untied the tape and wrapped his fingers up again properly. She felt his gaze on her as she worked but fought against it, because that _infuriating_ blush was working its way up her cheeks again, before tying it off neatly.

"There, you should be good now," she said with satisfaction, and then she made the mistake of looking up.

Something about his eyes, about the way they were black and bottomless but somehow still so _full,_ felt like coming home to Sakura. She couldn't quite explain it, but there was this startling intensity that radiated an almost palpable energy and she never felt safer and more secure than when she looked into Sasuke's eyes, and he looked back into hers.

Butterflies exploded in her stomach as she processed this new information. This was horrible. This was a horribly, horribly inconvenient time for this to be happening, and Sakura might be an idiot about some things, but she knew exactly what this was.

_Damn it. Damn it, damn it, damn it, why did it have to be him? AGAIN?_

"He comes near you again, and I'm gonna lay him out," Sasuke promised darkly.

"Please just let it go, Sasuke," she pleaded. "It's not a big deal. Will Coach Gai let you come get a hot chocolate really quick, or do you have to go regroup?"

"Hn. Come on."

Not really an answer in words, but the beeline he made for the snack bar was answer enough. She took a moment to admire the way he walked; it was more like a strut, confident and unintimidated by anything. People cut a swath for him automatically without him needing to push and jostle and shove the way the rest of them had to, and she hurried to keep up with his long, powerful strides. In the white-and-gold Konoha football uniform he wore, with his helmet carried under his arm and all the arrogance and power of a high school senior, he stirred such a powerful attraction in Sakura's stomach that she almost couldn't breathe.

_DAMN IT!_

He glanced behind him to make sure she was still with him, and gave a lopsided smirk at her vain attempt to keep pace.

"Hurry up," he teased, and she glared, but giggled nonetheless. They battled the crowd and reached the snack bar, but when Sakura went to open the door, Sasuke surprised her by doing it for them, holding it open so she could go through first.

It was a simple gesture. Simple and something he'd done a thousand times over, but it was still the most goddamn meaningful thing she could think of. He could have anyone, he could do anything he wanted, he could hang around with whatever crowd he felt like, and he spent his time with her. He pulled a bold, overprotective attitude with her and held the door open and teased her when she fell behind. He went to movies with her and ate bad bagels with her and spoke respectfully to her dads; he waited for her in the parking lot and walked her home and made her laugh when she thought she couldn't.

She knew the writing was on the wall for her, what all of this meant. This magnetic attraction that echoed of her maddening crush on him all throughout middle school, this time tinged with a note of maturity and sincerity, she knew it all added up to one thing:

She liked Sasuke Uchiha.

And on paper, he was the perfect man, except for one huge thing:

He didn't, couldn't, never did, would never like her back.

The thought was as bittersweet as the Styrofoam cup of watery hot chocolate he pressed into her hands.

* * *

His fingers brushed against Sakura's as he handed over one of the hot chocolates, and he jerked a little at the contact. How could one person have such an effect on him? How could the slightest, most innocent, most meaningless touch have sent such an electrical charge through him, a shot of adrenaline unlike any other he'd experienced tonight, even on the field?

Vaguely, he was glad she'd paused to put on the track jacket, concealing her exposed stomach from view. He doubted he'd be able to focus on anything she said if she had her perfect abs on display, with that unbelievably _sexy_ piercing that drew his eye in a way that should be made illegal.

Sasuke's life was largely unfair, in many ways. But perhaps the most unfair way of all had to be this twisted, one-sided affection he felt for his female best friend, knowing she was still too raw and fragile to feel anything for him but tentative, reformed friendship.

He had a chance, but he was getting impatient, and how could he not? Standing on the precipice of something more, something significant, with this frustrating, incomprehensible woman with eyes like homecoming, he knew he needed to give her time. There was no guarantee she'd jump right into his arms anyway. To even stand a chance, he'd need to be patient, and let her take things at her own pace.

But she was tempting. Everything she did tempted him, every move with her hips, every doe-eyed look, every lilting laugh and every meaningful smile. Fighting his love for her with cool, logical reason was becoming more and more difficult with each passing day.

He was starting to read into her actions as well. He caught her gaze on his face lingering a bit longer than normal. She blushed a lot in his presence as well. She was as comfortable as ever around him, to be sure, but added in now was the feeling that something about her was _different._

Even just standing here, sipping cocoa and trying to avoid everyone in the crowd as the marching band played some useless show on the field, there was a shift in the ambiance between them. He couldn't nail it down exactly; but he felt it nonetheless. Light and subtle, but there. He didn't know if it was a good or bad thing, if he should be excited for this new change in their dynamic or wary of it.

Sakura had a way of making him feel both at the same time.

God, if she ever figured out what a fucked up _sap_ he was inside the silent, brooding, misunderstood jock everyone knew him to be, she'd die laughing. The thought was…

Traumatizing.

"Um…I have a question," Sakura said suddenly, and when he glanced down at her, he noticed that the blush was back in full force, and she appeared to be very, very nervous. The cocoa in her hands shook even though it was a very warm night. He raised an eyebrow. "This is gonna sound…really, really weird, and I know it might…affect the way we are with each other. But…I don't know, Sasuke, don't you feel like something is…different, lately?"

His breath caught in his throat. He felt messy, sweaty in his grass-stained, filthy uniform, deeply unprepared, and uncharacteristically _nervous._ There was no mistaking that, was there? The frightened determination shining in the prettiest eyes he'd ever seen?

"And I totally, _completely_ understand if you don't, like, feel it, too, or whatever…but…"

He opened his mouth to respond. Or maybe kiss her, since apparently he'd left his sanity out on the football field, but as he did so…

"OI! ASSHOLE!" Naruto's voice pierced over the noisy crowd with ease. Sasuke turned furiously to find Naruto standing in front of the visiting team's locker room, waving to get his attention. "COACH SAYS IT'S TIME TO KEEP WHOOPING OTO ASS! QUIT MAKING OUT WITH SAKURA!"

"Dumbass," Sasuke snarled, but Sakura's hand on his arm jerked his attention back to her.

A beautiful smile nearly took his breath away, as she took his half-empty cocoa and tipped it into her half-full one.

"Go get 'em," she said. "We can talk later. Or, better yet: forget I said anything. Just don't get hurt out there, you hear me?"

He rolled his eyes, inwardly fuming that their conversation was suspended, maybe indefinitely, somewhat annoyed with her barking orders at him and somewhat completely shit-out-of-luck in love with her all at once. With a sigh, he jammed his helmet back on his head, putting thoughts of pretty cheerleaders with pretty eyes out of his head for now, and without a backwards glance, he jogged back onto the field.

xoxoxox

The ball was hiked into his hands. Smirking in victory, Sasuke caught it and took a knee, running out the last three seconds on the clock.

The buzzer went off to indicate the game was over, and the crowd reaction was deafening. Furious boos and angry heckling from the Oto supporters, explosive cheers from the Konoha supporters, all of it creating a mad cacophony that Sasuke fucking _lived for._ Grinning as his teammates swarmed him, Gai and his assistant coaches Raidou and Kotetsu storming the field to present him with the game ball, Naruto clapping him way too hard on the back, he made sure to make direct eye contact with Zaku before his grin morphed into a challenging smirk.

Zaku, battered and bruised from his cringeworthy seven sacks, simply glared back before stomping right over to where the Konoha cheerleaders were celebrating with shrieks and backflips and a lot of mindless, unnecessary pompom waving.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he approached Sakura. There was absolutely no way, no way in _hell,_ he was about to do something right _in front _of Sasuke.

If Zaku thought that just because there were countless people here to witness it, that Sasuke wasn't more than capable of murder, he had another thing coming. Grimly, he shrugged off his teammates and made a beeline straight for whatever the fuck was happening on the sidelines. He watched as Zaku said something to Sakura that made her gasp and take a step back. His arm, exhausted from throwing so many passes, suddenly felt good as new; feeding off this adrenaline rush, he concentrated some nonexistent energy to his legs to carry him faster.

What happened next made him stop dead.

Sakura flinched away from Zaku, but only for a split second. Then, her face contorted into something feral, she let out a hellish shriek that drowned out the happy squeals of the other cheerleaders, and she yanked her arm back before slugging Zaku right in the jaw.

There was a horrible-sounding crunch as he flew backwards, hitting the grass flat on his back. A stone-cold, glorious knockout.

Sasuke let out a bark of surprised laughter before shaking his head.

Apparently, five-foot-nothing little Sakura Haruno didn't need him to handle this one after all.

The dazzling, albeit smug smirk she shot him was just her way of telling him _I told you so._

* * *

**note..** because we all know sakura's badass enough to handle her own shit, yafeelme :)

song is 'everything has changed,' a duet with t-swizzle and ed sheeran, about someone doing something sweet and effortless like holding the door and BAM it hits you that you like them. so she's slowly coming to terms with her feelings for sasuke, basically. well, it makes sense to me.

this is my favorite story to write, so it's the one i write most frequently. and to answer the review: yes, this is very close to my high school experience. i hope i got the football game atmosphere right. view's different from the top of the pyramid, and whatever.

hope you guys liked it :) let me know?

xoxo Daisy :)


	7. Untouchable

Untouchable

"It's only the most important week of the _year,_ Forehead!"

Sakura sighed, slicing her finger open on a piece of construction paper. Cussing lightly under her breath, she remarked, "Maybe to _you._ To _me,_ Spirit Week is yet another responsibility to take care of after cheerleading practice. Meanwhile, I've got a stack of homework that's starting to look more and more like Hokage Tower every day, not to mention two pissed-off dads wondering why I haven't done the dishes in two months."

Ino rolled her eyes.

"You're sixteen, y'know," she said dryly. "You talk like you're in your forties. You know exactly why Spirit Week is so important."

Sakura did know. Spirit Week was the preamble to the Homecoming football game, widely considered to be the most important game of the year. This year, they would be playing against Suna High School, but football itself took a backseat to the main attraction:

Crowning the Homecoming Queen.

Now in their senior year, both Sakura and Ino found themselves on the ballot, along with another candidate: Ami Watanabe, Sakura's mortal enemy. Sakura didn't care much if she won or lost, as long as Ami was soundly defeated.

"You're pretty much a shoo-in to win," Ino said, looking pissed as she taped a glittery poster up on the wall in the senior hallway. "Which is just completely unfair. I'm the blonde bombshell. It _should_ be me."

"It _will_ be you, Fatty," Sakura sighed. "Anyway it's just a stupid plastic crown that means nothing. I still have to buy my dress."

"You haven't bought it yet?! Moron, it's four days away!"

"I was just gonna wear one of my old ones. But they don't fit anymore."

"Excuse me, you were going to _repeat_ a homecoming gown?!"

"Yeah. I wanted to wear the black one from Princess Court in tenth grade, but it's too tight around my chest."

Ino smirked. "Maybe because you finally grew some tits. Hand me that ruler, this shit looks crooked."

Decorating the hallway for Spirit Week fell onto the shoulders of the Spirit Committee. Luckily, they had a lot of people sign up this year, so even at the hour of 6 pm, seniors crowded in the senior corridor, hanging posters and banners and streamers to get everyone excited for homecoming.

"What dress did _you_ get?" Sakura wondered. If she was being completely honest with herself, she knew homecoming was shallow, appearance-oriented and essentially a popularity contest, but like any other girl in the world, she still wanted to win. Who _didn't_ want to stand on a field in a gorgeous dress while everyone told you how pretty you were? It didn't matter how shallow the situation; Sakura, as a red-blooded female, loved fashion, and even if buying a brand new gown with the scant amount of money she had in her bank account was an ordeal, she was still secretly excited.

"I'm only showing you because I don't want you to get something similar," Ino said haughtily, pulling her cell phone out of her purse and showing a picture of a shiny gold gown with a plunging neckline. Sakura was reasonably happy with her own thin, fit physique, but not for the first time, she longed for Ino's extravagant curves and ability to wear absolutely anything she wanted without it clashing horribly with her hair.

"I like it!" Sakura gushed instead. "Where'd you get it?"

"This store my mom took me to in Suna. So now you can't get anything gold, yahearme?"

"I know, I know. I'm going tomorrow night, you wanna come?"

"I would if I could, just to make sure you bought something so ugly, no one would vote for you, but I told my parents I'd help them out at the flower shop after cheerleading practice. Which is lame, because they don't even _pay_ me."

"Guess I'm on my own, then," Sakura sighed wistfully. "I wonder if my dads would loan me some money for a cute one. Nothing expensive, but I don't wanna look like an ass on the field on Friday, and just hand you a victory you don't deserve."

"You'd look megahot no matter what you wore!" a cheerful voice chimed in on their conversation, and they both looked around to see Naruto standing behind them, covered in mud and grass stains, clearly fresh from football practice. Behind him, looking freshly showered and as aloof as ever, was Sasuke, a bored expression on his face.

"Thanks, Naruto," Sakura giggled, blushing a little at how unfairly gorgeous Sasuke looked every minute of the day. She returned her attention to the large letter 'K' she was attempting to bedazzle before they hung it from the ceiling. Her legs were cramping up from sitting Indian style so long, and her stomach rumbled; she'd been at school for twelve hours and counting.

"Let's go," Sasuke said. She looked up at him again and saw that his expression had changed from default: uninterested to irritated. "I'm starving. You haven't eaten yet today."

"So I have _three_ fathers now?" She rolled her eyes at his impatience. "Let me just hang this K. I can finish the rest tomorrow. You know, if you guys would help all of us out on occasion, maybe we wouldn't take so long."

"Hn. It's stupid. No one needs any added incentive to come to the Homecoming game."

"Sasuke, you're just salty because all eyes are gonna be on _us_, rather than your showy QB shit," Ino sneered, nodding to herself and Sakura, who smirked.

Sasuke had no response for that, so he settled for tapping his foot impatiently to hurry Sakura along.

She applied the last coat of glitter, blew on it in Sasuke's direction just to annoy him, then stood, her legs protesting the change in position. Pins and needles surged through her knees and she grimaced, shaking them a little to restore the blood flow.

"Hey, Hinata, you done with that chair?" she called down the hallway to one of her best friends, who was balancing precariously on a stolen school chair trying to hang streamers from the ceiling.

"N-Not yet!" Hinata called back. "S-Sorry!"

"Gimme a boost, will you?" Sakura asked Sasuke, pointing to where she needed the letter K to hang.

He exhaled sharply in annoyance and set his backpack on the floor, muttering, "Is there only one chair in the entire school? Jesus." But despite his obvious distaste for hallway decorating and helping out damsels in distress, he slid his hands around her waist and lifted her up with almost no effort whatsoever.

She blushed furiously at the contact, much more intimate than they were usually accustomed to. Sasuke typically kept a very respectful distance from her, and touches between them were fleeting and rare. But feeling his warm, strong hands wrapped securely around her waist had her dizzy, and it took her a few tries to hang the letter straight. She refused to admit to herself that she was taking longer than usual just to prolong the contact, but…

Sasuke had really, _really_ nice hands, okay?

"What's taking so long?" he demanded, snapping her out of her trance. Certain her face was on fire, she taped the decoration up and snapped back, "I'm done, you ape, you can let me down now!"

Sasuke did, with absolutely no warning. She barely landed on her feet, and glared up at him, resenting him for his towering height and unfair masculine strength. He smirked smugly at her, picked up his backpack, and jerked his thumb towards the parking lot.

"Let's go," he ordered.

"Don't boss me around!" she snapped, even though she was dying to eat something covered in sugar and ice her knees for awhile (aerials were no joke).

"You drove me today, stupid. I can't leave without you."

Picturing Sasuke saying that last sentence, but in a much different, much more romantic setting had Sakura's heart racing so fast, she could barely see straight. She knew she had a teensy, tiny crush on him, okay? He didn't need to constantly remind her by saying things that could be construed as romantic and making her as jittery as a butterfly.

"Fine," she said coolly, fighting her fierce blush and seizing her purse from off the floor. "Are you guys coming along?"

"Nope," Ino said, with a strange, all-knowing smile on her face. "Narutard here is going to help me with the locker paint, aren't you?"

"But I wanna get a taco!" Naruto whined, only to be forcibly elbowed in the stomach by a none-too-subtle Ino. "I mean…yeah. Great. Sounds great, Ino. Damn it."

"We'll get tacos later," Ino promised. "Why don't you ask _Hinata_ if she likes tacos, huh?"

Sakura giggled. Hinata's crush on Naruto was universal knowledge, to everyone except the big blonde doofus himself. Sure enough, suspecting nothing, he nodded enthusiastically and shouted down the hallway, "HEY! HINATA! COME GET TACOS WITH US WHEN WE'RE DONE!"

Hinata was twenty yards away, but her blush was absolutely radiant. Sakura laughed and grabbed Sasuke's arm, taken aback slightly by how muscular it felt under her fingers; she recovered admirably quickly and said, "All right, lazy ass. I'm hungry, let's get something to eat."

It really wasn't fair. She was coming off the worst break-up ever (it had been two months, though, and she was starting to feel much better about it) and thought she was cured from what seemed like a lifelong fascination with Sasuke Uchiha, only to have it flare up again in her last year of high school. She was so _close_ to graduating without the sick attachment that had ruled her every decision in middle school, just to trip at the finish line and head right back down that path. Cheerfully, even.

Glancing behind her up at Sasuke, gorgeous, smartass, sexy, funny, overprotective Sasuke Uchiha, she was struck by a sudden pang of sadness. Because no matter how much time had passed and no matter how much she had grown, it still fucking _hurt_ knowing you liked someone who was never going to like you back.

* * *

"Hey, come shopping with me tomorrow?" Sakura asked, lying backwards on her bed, her feet propped up on a mountain of pillows as she stared up at the ceiling. A half-eaten pomegranate frozen yogurt was in her hands, the spoon dangling from her mouth.

Sasuke sat at her desk and shot her an irritated glare. "No."

"I need to get a dress for homecoming."

"I said no."

"You have to come! Ino can't, and Hinata's busy and so are the other girls, and I don't want Naruto spying on me in the dressing room and Shikamaru's too lazy to even get in the car and Chouji's too hungry and I need someone to tell me if whatever I pick looks good or not!"

"Just wear one from last year," Sasuke snapped, trying to focus on his physics homework. He didn't see all the fuss with homecoming, especially when Sakura had three dresses from serving on the Princess Court freshman, sophomore, and junior years just lying around. All it was, was a distraction from what everyone _should_ be paying attention to on a Friday night: high school football.

"I was gonna, but none of my dresses fit," she sniffed. "I'm a full cup size bigger now than I used to be."

Sasuke's hand twitched so violently that his pencil snapped in two. Hoping Sakura hadn't seen his minor breakdown, he tossed the two useless halves into the little pink trashcan by her desk and hid his blush with his hair. He'd spent the last several years of school surreptitiously ogling Sakura from a distance; how could he have missed such a crucial detail?

"Just come with me?" she pleaded, turning towards him with her long pink hair spilling over the side of the bed. Upside down, she looked frightening, but also frustratingly appealing. "Please? I'll drive if you want."

"Tch. It'll take more than _that._"

Sasuke cared about Sakura a lot. But no guy in history wanted to wait around for a teenage girl to pick out a _dress._

"I'll let you borrow my chem notes for the test tomorrow."

That was marginally more appealing; Sakura took _excellent_ notes, and Mr. Sarutobi's chem tests were notoriously difficult. He glanced over his shoulder, ignoring the way his eyes were drawn immediately to her chest to confirm that she was bigger, and raised an eyebrow.

"I'm listening."

She bit her lip, then blurted, "Okay, FINE. I'll drive, lend you the notes, and let you work on my car."

Sasuke smirked. He'd been dying to get under the hood of Sakura's Miata since her dads had bought it for her, but she'd patently refused, not wanting him to ruin anything with his amateurish tinkering, as she called it. But he could use some practice working on a non-German engine, and besides, she needed new brake pads anyways.

"Fine," he agreed, and he returned to his studying and she returned to her yogurt in companionable silence.

If Sasuke was being honest with himself, these were the moments he missed most when Sakura was dating Kiba. They would spend hours in her bedroom, or his, doing homework, watching TV, just whiling away the time. It was never tense, never awkward; being with her like this felt easy, felt right. He would antagonize her, she would tease him back, and they would smile in secret and go back to their work.

Her room was a reflection of her: a bit disorganized, but tasteful. She had dark magenta walls, the color identified as Crayola Razzmatazz, which he only knew because she'd made him accompany her to the paint store and watch the paint guy mix the color _exactly right._ The lime green curtains clashed violently with the walls, but somehow it worked, a grandiose caricature of Sakura herself, with her mint green eyes and baby pink hair. It shouldn't work, but it did.

She had an old TV facing her full-size bed covered with mismatched comforters and sheets, and a mountain of pillows he could safely say were as comfortable as they looked. Old, well-worn, the cotton fuzzy but soft against his cheek. He'd fallen asleep in her bed more times than he wanted to admit; sometimes he wondered if Iruka knew about that, which would certainly justify his hatred.

There were posters of places Sakura had never been to on her tacky walls, but mostly there were pictures of her with her friends and family. Sasuke was pleased to see that he was featured in many of them, including the one Sakura kept framed on her desk: it was from one of Ino's football afterparties, and in it he was smirking up at the camera, his arm draped loosely around Sakura's shoulders while she beamed at the camera. Naruto was balancing Ino on his shoulders beside them. All of her best friends together, in this most important picture.

He smirked in satisfaction. It seemed that, friend-wise, he'd wormed his way right back into her heart.

Now there was only the fussy matter of getting her to take it a step further than that…

xoxoxox

To Sasuke's complete and utter shock, shopping with Sakura was nowhere near the catastrophe he was expecting it would be.

He'd planned for an afternoon full of bag-carrying, clock-checking, life-destroying shopping hell. Sakura was a girl, after all.

But he'd underestimated how down-to-earth she was, because they'd gone into one store, she'd tried on one dress, and announced, "Okay, I got it." She paid for it without so much as modeling it for him to get his reaction, and they were off to the food court moments later.

He fell a little bit more in love with her.

It was over a salty-sweet soft pretzel at a table in the food court that an uncomfortable query made its way into his head. Trying for nonchalance, he swallowed his salty pretzel bite and asked, "So who's escorting you on Friday."

Sakura nearly choked on her sweet bite, and quickly washed it down with a swig of water. "Oh, _piss,_" she swore. "I have no idea! I completely forgot I had to get somebody!"

It was unlike Sakura to be so scatterbrained about anything, but it pleased him nonetheless to know that at least she didn't have any guy in mind to ask to be her date at the ceremony. He stole her water and drank the rest of it himself, earning a very dirty glare from Sakura that he tried very hard not to find attractive.

"I'd ask you," she sighed, "but you'd be all dirty and nasty and gross and yuck from your game. And the odds of you saying yes are nonexistent, so…"

So he'd been her first choice, then? He battled a smirk and replied, "Aa."

"Most of my guy friends are on the football team, though," she groaned. "So they're _all_ gonna be dirty and nasty and gross and yuck."

"So?" Sasuke was annoyed that she was back to considering other guys. This inability to find a happy medium was grating on his nerves. "Ino's making Chouji take her. He's on the team."

Sakura's eyes visibly brightened, and he inwardly groaned at what he knew was coming.

"So…if he's willing to do it…Sasuke _please?_"

Powerless. He was fucking _powerless_ against her, and it made absolutely no sense. He had made peace with the fact that he was in love with her. Did that mean she got to exert an unsettling amount of control over his life? Did he have no say in his own decisions anymore, at all?

But the idea of watching Sakura in her pretty dress (he'd gotten a glimpse of the color: gunmetal, one of his favorites) on the arm of any guy in school besides him was unacceptable. His lip curled in distaste.

"Please escort me!" she begged. "It'll only be a few minutes and you can go right back to your game! I promise! You don't even have to get dressed up, you can just wear your nasty ass football uniform and I won't even whine about how you stink, I promise! Please don't make me be the _only girl_ in the _history_ of _high school_ to be nominated for Homecoming and show up without a date! Please, don't!"

Damn it. He knew how this ended. He leaned back in the plastic chair and sighed.

"What do I get if I agree?" he asked.

But Sakura smirked and shook her head. "Nope. You played that game before; you get the pleasure of helping a friend. And the singularly unique pleasure of seeing that friend in the hottest dress known to man." She met his eye and her smirk widened, and Sasuke felt arousal hit him like a bowling ball.

Did _everything she did_ have to turn him on?

"Tch. Whatever." He tossed his napkin down and stood. "Let's get going."

"Not so fast, Sasuke," she sang, and her smirk turned into an evil little smile as she caught his hand. "I still need to buy some _shoes._"

* * *

**note..** thank you all so, so much for all the great feedback! it really keeps me wanting to write more, and write quickly. and i think you might like what happens next chapter ;)

well, i hope, anyways. BUT I DREAM.

ALSO: shameless self-plug. i have a christmas anthology series coming out soon. primarily sasuke/sakura since that's where my heart is, but other characters will be involved, including neji and tenten, who i systematically ignore in most of my stories (because i feel no emotional attachment to them whatsoever, but people are seeing this as a flaw, and i aim to be flawless. the neuroses, you know?) so keep an eye out for that over the next couple days, yeah?

love you guys. love you love you love you. if you would like to keep feeding my ravenous, insatiable ego with reviews, i would have no objections. hallelujahhollaback.

xoxo Daisy :)


	8. Sparks Fly

Sparks Fly

"Remind me again why I have to be here?" Sasuke demanded, folding his arms and leaning against the doorframe.

She giggled, because wasn't it just like him to pretend to be put out; they both knew that Sasuke Uchiha did _nothing_ without actually wanting to. If he really didn't feel like being here, then he wouldn't be here, in her bedroom after school, waiting while she played with her hair.

"Because, stupid, you're my escort. I need you to tell me if my hair looks ridiculous."

"Isn't that for _Ino_ to worry about?" he demanded.

"Sasuke!" she whined. "Ino's my competition! Why can't you just cooperate?"

"Annoying," he hissed, but she laughed it off and returned her attention to her hair.

The style she was going for was simple but elegant; to her knowledge, both Ino and Ami had made hair appointments with professional stylists. Since she was a girl of practical tastes, she decided to do her own hair at home, but now she was stressing out a little over it. She didn't want to show up with a rat's nest on her head, and be immortalized in pictures for centuries as the girl with jacked hair at homecoming.

She wound long pink locks around her wand and let them bounce free. It was Thursday. That meant she had one day to decide on a hairstyle, and practice it until she felt comfortable doing it the following night. With Ino obsessing over her own appearance that night, unfortunately Sasuke, with whom she had spent nearly every minute they weren't in class or at their respective practices, was recruited to the role of supportive best friend.

Or as supportive as Sasuke Uchiha ever was, anyways, standing in the threshold of her bedroom with the setting sun casting a ridiculously sexy glow on his pissed-off face.

She styled her bangs so they swept to one side of her face, then stopped to admire her reflection in the mirror. Long, loose, romantic curls and sideswept bangs; the effect was pretty enough for homecoming, to her naïve eye.

"Okay, what do you think?" she asked, standing up from her makeup mirror to model the style for Sasuke.

He looked at her, and his cheeks reddened. Frowning, she wondered if maybe they should have the air conditioner on if he was so hot, and then asked, "Is it that bad?"

He cleared his throat and looked away, his expression incomprehensibly pissed. "It's fine," he said stiffly. "Can we watch the damn game now?"

'It's fine' was as good a compliment from Sasuke as she was ever going to get. Pleased, she pulled her thick curls into a ponytail off her face and plopped down onto her bed, patting the spot next to her.

"All right, then that's settled. I'll do this same style tomorrow. Sorry to torture you like that, Sasuke. But you wouldn't want to be embarrassed by me with some shit hair, you know. Game's just started."

"Finally," he grumbled, sitting down beside her with his back against the headboard. She rolled her eyes at his childish attitude and aimed her remote at the TV, turning it on.

He smelled extra good that day. That was all Sakura could really focus on as she sat so close to him, his intoxicating scent of cologne and fire and something distinctly _Sasuke_ swirling in her nostrils and making her dizzy. He was warm, even though they weren't touching, and she experienced a longing for him so powerful she almost couldn't stand it.

Was she the only one to feel the _shift?_

She had almost blurted it all out to him at the first football game of the season two months ago, the fact that she felt things changing between them. And now they weren't boyfriend and girlfriend, but they were _definitely_ more than friends. They did _everything_ together; hung out, studied, partied. They were constantly together in school, a fact which they were often ruthlessly teased for; the implications were all there, weren't they? That calling them 'friends' at this point was a watery, diluted version of…of whatever they actually were.

But Sakura had years and years of experience telling her to slow down, to pull back; liking Sasuke had landed her in a whole lot of heartbreak in the past, and nothing more. She thought she was over it when she started dating Kiba, but looking back now, she really wasn't sure.

She couldn't remember ever feeling as strongly about Kiba as she did about Sasuke. Even at their best.

Remembering Kiba's words to her all those weeks ago, that he'd known all along she was in love with someone else, she had to wonder if maybe there was something to that.

It made focusing on the baseball game Sasuke had thrown on almost impossible, all these questions rolling around inside her.

_I wonder if he's figured it out yet,_ she thought, biting her lip. _I'm like…captivated by him. Like fireworks._

He shifted slightly just then, and raised his arms behind him, resting them on the headboard so his right arm was _almost_ wrapped around hers. A quick, shocked glance to his face revealed absolutely nothing, but his fingers skated over her bare shoulder and the effect was a quick shot of arousal directly to her stomach. The slightest, most _innocent_ touch had her a big, blushing ball of nerves. That had _definitely_ never happened with Kiba.

But because he'd made the first move, Sakura decided to be brave. To take a chance for the thousandth time at getting a bit closer to Sasuke than he would normally allow, than she would normally dare. Keeping her face clear of any telling emotions, she leaned in closer to his side, so her head rested lightly on his shoulder.

He flinched a bit, but didn't move away, and Sakura inwardly rejoiced.

_He's never, ever, ever let me do anything like this,_ she thought gleefully, relishing in her meager victory. The fingers on her arm, though, weren't an accident, because she felt a ticklish brush again and realized he was absently stroking her skin.

Heat, heat like an _inferno_, ignited within her stomach. Moments passed, just the two of them _cuddling,_ on her bed like they did it all the time, and when she snuggled a bit closer, she felt Sasuke's breath hitch in his throat.

_Shit,_ she thought, eyes going wide as she put the pieces together. Adrenaline exploded through her veins as she realized, to her _shock_, what was happening here.

It was the shift. It _was_ happening, it wasn't just in her head. She didn't need Sasuke to actually tell her, to confirm it.

Not when she suddenly became fluent in reading his body language; every minor adjustment he made to their position, every subtle turn or twist, she could translate in the words she so desperately wanted to hear. Sasuke wasn't moving away from her, wasn't trying to restore distance, wasn't bodily throwing her off of him the way he did to all the girls at school who flung themselves at him.

He was getting _closer._

She dared not speak. If she opened her mouth, she would either reveal entirely, embarrassingly too much (I think I still love you), or try and make a joke about it, and push him away. And at that moment, Sakura wasn't sure which was scarier: closing the dwindling distance between them, or restoring it.

Sasuke's face tilted centimeters towards her own. She felt his breath fan against her cheek, felt his dark eyes turn their attention from the game on TV (who was playing, again?) to her face. That's when the shift felt much less like a subtle, intangible change, and much more like an earthquake. An _inevitability._

_Exactly,_ she thought dreamily, as if she was watching the scene from elsewhere, instead of living it herself. Longing and desire and attraction and something much, much stronger burned inside her stomach, inside her chest, like a living thing, as she shyly, tentatively, _inevitably_ lifted her gaze to meet his.

_It's inevitable. It's unavoidable. It was always gonna happen. I feel it, Sasuke…do you?_

There was something _smoldering_ in his eyes as they burned into hers. Deep, fathomless black and flecked with silver, the most beautiful eyes she'd ever seen, they reflected the same desire that she felt building inside her. Her hands, lying listlessly in her lap, slid slowly up his stomach, the hard planes of his torso easily felt even through the cotton of his hoodie, before they fisted in the front of the fabric. His fingers dragging light, lazy circles on her arm tightened into a vice grip, and keeping his eyes locked on her face, his breathing becoming a bit ragged and heavier than usual, he twisted his entire body so he faced her.

Sakura dazedly felt him lower her gently to her pillows, his gaze on her as a silent, subtle way of making sure what he was doing was okay. He felt it, too, then. It was obvious now, even to someone as overly cautious as her. That beautiful, gorgeous, terrifying, agonizing _inevitability_ of what was happening between them; and judging by the way he leaned in nearly all the way, his lips millimeters away from hers as they shared a quick breath, he had surrendered to it completely.

If he didn't do something soon, she was going to go crazy. Sasuke hovering over her, his arms pinning her in place beneath him, leaving just enough space for her to slide away if she was uncomfortable, she couldn't handle it anymore. The heat stirring between them was becoming too intense. With all the courage she could muster, and all the restraint as well, she lifted her lips, closing the last remaining distance between them and meeting his mouth in a sweet kiss.

* * *

Sasuke's brain shut down.

It was happening. Something he had always wanted, even before he'd recognized that he did, something he had always felt was some sort of inevitability. Eventually, when he wasn't so selfish and Sakura wasn't so occupied, when he could attempt to give her the love she deserved freely, and she was available to accept it, he'd always imagined something like this happening.

There was no adrenaline rush greater than that split second, when he knew where things were headed, and everything suddenly made sense. It was incredible, it was better than scoring the winning touchdown, better than pitching a strikeout, better than the best high of his life.

He felt goosebumps on the skin of her arm, and as she kissed him, her lips soft and sweet, the need to touch her, to feel more of her smooth, supple skin, became overwhelming. How had he done it, all these years? Kept his hands to himself, his mouth to himself? How had he resisted?

His defenses crumbled to the ground in the span of five minutes. Every carefully-constructed barricade around his heart, she'd smashed through without even realizing it, and now she was kissing him.

His breath wouldn't come out straight. His eyelids slid shut and he groaned before kissing her back, harder, more insistently.

Sakura reciprocated in kind. Her hands slipped from his hoodie, up his collarbone, up his neck, and settled into his hair. He saw stars, desire slamming into him like a wrecking ball, and any respectful distance he might have tried to maintain between them vanished as his hips pressed automatically against hers.

Far from shying away at the sexual gesture, Sakura ground her hips slowly against his, a groan of her own escaping her mouth as they deepened the kiss. He seized the back of her neck with one hand to find a better angle, the other traveling down her side, over her stomach.

This was happening way too fast, and yet nowhere near fast enough. She tasted like cinnamon and summer, the noises she was making were way too sweet, too sexual to ignore, and he pulled back for air a few moments later only to immediately seal his lips against her throat.

He felt, rather than heard, her heart racing; she squirmed beneath him, apparently just as lost to her desire as he was to his, and the thought that she was equally as voracious heightened his need for her. His tongue found her pulse point, ruled by instinct, because he'd never done this before, and when he sucked lightly on the skin, she released a strangled moan that nearly made him lose it.

"_Sasuke,_" she sighed, and it sounded like music. Her blunt nails raked against his scalp, making him dizzy, and he slid his hand up her shirt, memorizing every contour of her tight abs. She arched her back for him, one of her knees traveling between his legs, and he could feel her heat as she tried to relieve some of the same ache he was feeling with pressure.

It was when his fingers brushed against the lacy fabric of her bra that they heard it: footsteps on the stairs.

"Sakura?" The voice called from down the hallway, getting closer.

They _froze._ This couldn't be a more implicating position; Sasuke had one hand on a lace-covered breast that _was_ bigger than he thought, and they were wound so tightly around one another that it was impossible to tell which limb belonged to whom. Sakura's eyes were wide and shocked as they settled on him, naked horror passing between them as they realized _the door was open._

Sense returned to him, at least partially, and he threw himself off of her, straightening his clothes as he seized his backpack from Sakura's desk chair. Not a moment later did Iruka appear in the doorway; Sasuke refused to look his way, knowing his guilt was incredibly obvious.

"We're gonna get going, sweetie," Iruka told his daughter, while Sasuke pretended to fiddle with the zipper of his bag. "Sure you don't wanna come? We're getting Italian…your favorite."

"I'm sure," he heard Sakura reply, her voice shrill with nerves. "Not hungry. Thanks anyway."

"You okay, princess? You look flushed."

Sasuke felt, _felt_ Iruka's murderous glare on his back.

"Oh, I'm fine. Just a…little nervous. About tomorrow."

"You'll do great!" her dad said encouragingly. "Just make sure you don't topple out of those heels of yours."

Sakura laughed, but Sasuke could tell it was forced. Iruka bade them both good night, before leaving; Sasuke heard his footsteps on the stairs, then the front door shutting below. It wasn't until they heard their car pull out of the driveway that he dared to move.

_What did I just do?_ He thought, panicked and elated and terrified and blindingly, blissfully _exhilarated_ all at once. He'd kissed Sakura. He'd _made out_ with Sakura.

Sweet mother of God…

"Um…Sasuke…"

He froze at the sound of her voice, not trusting himself to speak in return, and slowly turned to face her.

What he saw took his breath away.

Sakura was sprawled across her bed, on her side, facing him. Her hair had been tugged from its ponytail, curls framing her face, spilling down her back; the apples of her cheeks were scarlet, her lips swollen, her eyes alive with a fire and a fear he'd never seen in her. Her tank top was hiked up high, the piercing in her navel catching the light and shining in his eyes.

It was the single sexiest thing he'd ever seen, and he swallowed what felt like his heart.

"I should get going," he heard himself say, his voice quiet.

The flicker of hurt across her face hit him like a punch in the gut, but he knew he couldn't stay. This wasn't how he planned on this happening. Sakura deserved better than a spur-of-the-moment makeout session on Homecoming eve, and if he stayed…

One look at her rumpled clothes and come-hither eyes and he knew _exactly_ how this night would end.

"Um…yeah," she said, visibly deflated. She sat up, shook her hair out, and fixed her shirt. "Yeah, okay. Um…all right. I'll see you tomorrow, then. At the uh. Pep rally."

"Aa," he mumbled.

He couldn't leave like this, could he? Just…just pretend like nothing happened. Ignore the last ten minutes like they hadn't revolutionized his entire life. Leave here letting Sakura think it was just _something,_ instead of _everything._

No one ever told him this shit growing up, how hard everything would be. How it felt like every plan he had was being ripped up right in front of him and instead, he was being pulled along by invisible strings. How he had _no idea_ what he was supposed to do with this girl.

Halting steps took him back to her bed. He stopped in front of her, and she looked up at him shyly, in confusion, and still not knowing what he was doing, he bent down and kissed her. Soft, sweet, simple. She kissed him back, surprised, but he pulled away before it escalated.

"I like your hair like that," he murmured.

The blush of pleasure on her face was worth it. He left without another word, but under no circumstances could he stop the small, victorious, hopeful smile that unfolded on his face as he headed down the street.

* * *

**note..** i updated early :) no real rhyme or reason, just med school's fucking awesome, my husband's fucking awesome, my friends are fucking awesome, and i'm pretty happy with my life right now. so because all of YOU are fucking awesome...i didn't feel like holding onto this one anymore.

so what'd you think? i'd love to know...it'd make me feel fucking awesome. ;)

holla at me, y'all.

xoxo daisy :)


	9. Starlight

Starlight

"So S-Sakura, are you excited f-f-for t-tonight?" asked Hinata the next morning in homeroom. She smiled brightly at her friend, and Sakura was touched at how genuinely happy she was on her behalf, but she was also completely exhausted. Two hours of sleep the night before was nowhere near enough, but after the shocking turn of events that took place in her bedroom, she was amazed she'd managed to fall asleep at all.

"Oh," she said, blinking slowly, stupidly. "Um, yeah, definitely. It should be great."

"I think you'll win," Hinata said confidently.

"Oh, no way," Sakura laughed. "Ino's got it all sewn up. Still, it's nice to be nominated anyways."

Privately, she felt that the ballot was glaringly unfair; Hinata Hyuuga was one of the loveliest, kindest, sweetest people she'd ever met in her life. She certainly belonged on the field that night same as them. On no planet in any galaxy Sakura had ever heard of did Ami Watanabe deserve a place on the Homecoming ballot.

"We'll see," Hinata giggled. "Are you okay? Y-You look exhausted."

How could Sakura possibly explain what was wrong? That she and Sasuke had made out in her bed the night before, didn't so much as discuss it for two seconds, and now were expected to parade themselves across the football field tonight like nothing had changed?

She didn't know if she was breathlessly overjoyed at what had happened, or completely terrified. It certainly confirmed that things were changing between them, but was there anything scarier than getting exactly what you wanted? After a disastrous relationship with Kiba, and an even more disastrous non-relationship for years with Sasuke before, she was a bit jaded, and now she was just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Kissing Sasuke was always something unattainable to her. Something to think about fondly, but dismiss before she got carried away. But now, it had happened. Remembering the scorching warmth of his uncertain hands on her skin, remembering the heat between them, the inferno that ignited in her stomach in a way that had never happened with Kiba, and they'd only _kissed_ sent shockwaves coursing through her body even now.

She was excited. She was happy. She was _shocked._ And she was terrified.

Because what was supposed to happen next?

She was saved the trouble of answering Hinata by the start of the morning announcements. Their homeroom teacher turned on the television monitor mounted in the high corner, and the room fell silent as the student announcers appeared onscreen.

"Good morning, Konoha High School!" chirped Ino from the monitor, seated beside her co-anchor Shikamaru, who looked beyond bored as always. "It's officially here: the most important day of the year. Homecoming is upon us and it's the single most significant day of our insignificant lives!"

Sakura rolled her eyes as the rest of their homeroom laughed goodnaturedly. Nobody else but Ino.

"Anyway, if you live under a rock and haven't heard yet, your nominees for Homecoming Queen this year are: yours truly, the gorgeous Ino Yamanaka, escorted by Chouji Akimichi _who better not get his uniform all muddy_, my best friend, the equally beautiful Sakura Haruno _to whom I will not lose…"_ As she said her name, Sakura's homeroom all began to clap excitedly for her, making her blush and hide a little behind her hair. "…escorted by the crazy hot Sasuke Uchiha _like we're supposed to believe nothing's going on between them…" _ And Ino didn't know how right she was, Sakura reflected, mortified. "…Oh, and a fat cow named Ami that nobody cares about, escorted by Sai, who drew the short stick and has to lug her big fat body across the field."

Sakura burst out laughing; so did Hinata and the others gathered around them. She felt Kiba's stare on the back of her head from further down the row, but ignored it. It was easier than ever to ignore him lately. A lot of it she attributed to this growing closeness to Sasuke, but most of it came from the fact that she was well and truly done with him. She'd grown tired of the constant back-and-forth, and she was finding life much easier to handle without the added stress of a cheating boyfriend.

"So remember," Ino continued, "ballots will be passed around today in homeroom, which means _right now._ So exercise your right to vote by voting for me, Ino Yamanaka, as Konoha's Homecoming Queen this year!"

Sakura tuned out the rest of the announcements as their teacher passed the ballots around. Three names, her own, Ino's, and Ami's were printed across the tiny slips of paper with unmarked boxes next to each. Glancing up at her best friend on the screen and smiling fondly, she drew a big fat 'X' in the box next to Ino Yamanaka, and turned it in without a second thought.

The bell rang for first period, and she left homeroom with her books in her arms, thoughts returning to Sasuke and her bedroom the night before. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to do now. Kissing someone didn't guarantee the perfect happy ending; if anything, it only ever complicated things.

Would things be weird now between them? Awkward, or tense? Would he want to forget the whole thing ever happened, put it behind them and never speak of it again?

Or, perhaps even _more_ terrifying: did he want something more from her?

They'd both felt the shift in their friendship. It had culminated in a heated makeout session that would most likely have led to something else if Iruka hadn't interrupted them. That was the result of hormone suppression around each other: an anticlimactic climax that felt both insanely rushed, and a long time coming. Inevitable, but unbelievable all at once.

What was she supposed to do now?

"What time should I be at your house?" a deep voice asked from behind, and she nearly dropped her books in surprise as Sasuke fell into step beside her. It was Game Day, which meant he and the other football players were wearing their jerseys in a show of solidarity, same as the cheerleaders all wore their pleated skirts and track jackets to class. She loved the way he looked in his jersey, the number 12 on his back underneath his surname all the more imposing to their division rivals.

He didn't seem any different around her, which loosened the coil of tension that had tightened overnight in her stomach. His expression was relaxed, and nothing in his easy posture suggested that he was worked up about what had happened the night before (or that he regretted it, which made her heart soar.)

She felt herself relaxing a little bit, too, before registering his question.

"My house? You mean tonight?"

"Aa."

"Um…why? Would you come over, I mean."

He looked at her like she was stupid.

"To take pictures, idiot," he muttered.

"Oh. Oh!" Sakura was shocked as they headed into their first class together, and took their usual seats by the window. "Sorry, I didn't…get much sleep last night." She pointedly avoided his gaze, pretending to fiddle with her binder, and added, "I didn't think you'd want to come and bother with all that."

"Tch. I'm your date, aren't I."

Sakura couldn't help but giggle, half in amusement at his surly attitude, and half in sheer elation that he was actually putting forth _effort_, doing things he didn't have to do, just for her. Yes, it was customary for the boy and girl to take pictures together before Homecoming or any other dance like it, but Sasuke was not a typical high school boy. He didn't take any pleasure in a lot of things other normal guys would, and she just never imagined him to be the kind of guy to show up for pictures with his date. But he _was._

"Oh. Okay, sure. Uh, thanks. Chouji and Ino will be over around five-ish, everyone's gonna kind of filter in and out."

"Hn. Just don't embarrass me by tripping on the field or something," he muttered.

She giggled, then decided to let go of her anxiety for good.

Things weren't weird between them. They were unfinished, of course, and they both knew there was a lot to discuss and decide, a lot to predict and prevent and promise, a lot of air to clear before they could move forward. But he wasn't running away from it, and he wasn't ruining their friendship while they tried to catch up to their feelings, so she wouldn't either.

_We'll just see what happens,_ she thought, sneaking a loving glance at Sasuke, who was reading ahead in the text like the nerd he was. _And just be ready for it, whenever it comes. Whatever it is._

She was jaded from her last relationship, and more cynical than she used to be, but something about Sasuke Uchiha and the way things were changing lately made her feel like whatever was coming next was good.

* * *

Halftime came quickly that night, and Sasuke, for one, was glad.

He was playing like a punk throughout the first two quarters, and it really wasn't his fault. Sakura distracted him enough during every football game, flipping about in those tiny Spandex swaths of fabric masquerading as a cheerleading uniform, and that was bad enough.

But seeing her in her Homecoming dress was just ridiculous.

He'd had to stand in dozens of pictures with her at her house, along with Chouji and Ino, who was dressed like a Vegas prostitute in a plunging gold gown, his arm wrapped innocently around her waist, when all he wanted to do was rip the material right off her body. She looked too beautiful to be real in silky silver, the dress sleeveless and showing off her perfect hourglass figure, falling all the way past her feet. In the heels she was wearing, she cleared his collarbone, and from his height, he had a birds-eye view of some very nice cleavage.

With all that running through his mind before the game, it was no small wonder he was playing some of the worst football he'd ever played. Luckily, college scouts rarely cropped up to football games on Homecoming night, when the focus wasn't on the game so much as the girls.

Homecoming was a reunion. College kids returned to their alma mater to reconnect with each other, most of the student population showed up to root for their favorite girl, families appeared in full force, packing the stands completely. Those who didn't have seats on the bleachers hung out behind the fences to watch for free. It was a big party of sorts, followed by a dance at the high school for the senior class. He picked a good night to have an off-game, but he blamed Sakura completely.

Their coach dismissed both he and Chouji at halftime; he tossed his helmet to Naruto, who grinned at him.

"Better not trip and humiliate Sakura when she goes to get her crown, asshole!" he called.

Sasuke flipped him off and jogged off the field, behind the bleachers, where the Homecoming Court was waiting.

Ino was loudly chastising Chouji when he got there for getting mud on his jersey, which he ignored; the other girl, the one whose name he couldn't remember but the one who'd slept with Kiba while he was with Sakura, was overdressed in tulle and spangles, glaring daggers at her own date, Sai, who must have said something really rude. He had no interest in either of those couples, and turned instead to Sakura, who looked as nervous as she did beautiful.

"Well you're not too muddy," she remarked brightly, but her smile was forced. He could tell she was anxious, but he didn't know why. Surely she knew she was a shoo-in for Queen, didn't she?

"You look nervous," he told her flatly.

She sighed. "I know, I know. I'm fucking terrified. I know I'm gonna fucking fall on my face."

Sakura cursed when she was stressed, he remembered, and he smirked and offered her his arm the way they'd gone over in rehearsals earlier that day. She took it, and he felt her trembling.

"It's a bit too cold for what I'm wearing at the moment," she mumbled by explanation when he raised his eyebrow, and his smirk widened as he pulled her in closer to his side to share his warmth. "Well, I'm glad _you're_ so amused. I'm the one about to make an ass out of myself in front of a million people."

"Relax," he scoffed. "I won't let you down."

Her green eyes widened at that, and a pretty pink blush stained her cheeks. Recalling the same look on her face the night before, kiss-swollen lips murmuring his name, messy hair in her eyes, skin hot and smooth, he clenched his jaw against the familiar desire and looked away.

"You never do, Sasuke," she said quietly, so soft he almost didn't hear it, but when he went to say something else, they were interrupted by the arrival of the principal.

"Hello, hello, hello!" Dr. Sarutobi said happily, clapping his wrinkled hands together as he greeted them all. "Such lovely ladies this evening…all right, we're ready to begin. They're announcing the Princess Court now. They'll call you in reverse alphabetical order, just like in rehearsal. Good luck to all of you!"

Sasuke sighed. Was any of this really necessary? Everyone, with the possible exception of Sakura herself, knew that she was going to win tonight. They could save everyone a whole lot of time, and just hand her the crown now so he could get back to his game.

They all lined up, Ino in front, the other girl in the middle, and Sakura last. Her grip on his arm was so tight it was almost painful, and when he stole a quick glance at her flawless face, he saw that her eyes were wide and fearful, her jaw clenched. Of all the silly, stupid things to get nervous about.

"Calm down," he hissed.

"Best of luck, Forehead!" Ino called from the front of the line, a shit-eating grin on her scarlet lips. "Just don't trip!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes, but Ino, apparently, knew her best friend quite well; rather than succumb to her nerves, like she was doing a second ago, she'd taken Ino's jibe as a challenge. Immediately, the nervousness vanished from her face, and her eyes flashed in determination. Bizarrely, Sasuke kind of understood their strange friendship, considering he had the same one with Naruto right now. Driven by fierce competition, but with an underlying loyalty anyone with eyes could identify.

Sakura's grip loosened, and the feeling returned to his throwing arm, so that was just a bonus.

Mr. Sarutobi, their senior class advisor and Dr. Sarutobi's son, was up in the pressbox that evening calling out the names of the nominees. His speech was slightly garbled around the cigarette that dangled perennially from his lips, even in school. Sasuke suspected that nepotism was the only reason he was allowed to get away with smoking during school hours, inside the building.

"And now," he called, his voice booming over the loudspeaker, and the crowd gathered in the stands hushed, "your nominees for this year's Homecoming Queen!"

Predictable applause and cheering followed, and Sasuke wasn't at all surprised to look out into the stands from their position on the 50-yard line to see a number of people in the audience holding signs with Sakura's name on them. Brightly-colored banners dotted the audience, most of them touting Sakura and Ino. Their friends supported both girls equally, but the biggest sign was being held by Sakura's fathers, an enormous pink creation right underneath the pressbox. He smirked to himself; all this fuss, just to announce what he already knew.

"There are a _lot_ of people here," Sakura hissed to him, a smile on her face because pictures were already being taken, but there was no mistaking the anxiety in her voice.

"You knew there would be," he muttered back. "Jesus. Relax."

"You are _terrible_ at comforting people," she snapped.

He chuckled under his breath as Mr. Sarutobi began the introductions. Ino strutted across the field first, Chouji somewhat scrambling to keep up with her arrogant gait, as Mr. Sarutobi called, "First, we have Ino Yamanaka. Ino is co-captain of the varsity cheerleading squad, as well as captain of the lacrosse team, an honors student, and a very involved member of the senior class. She plans to attend Konoha University next year majoring in psychology, and wants to become a psychiatrist. Your first nominee: Ino Yamanaka!"

There was a great explosion of applause from the audience, and beside him, Sakura giggled as Ino and Chouji reached the Princess Court, and took their assigned spot in the front.

"I think in this moment," she whispered to him, "my dumb best friend looks more like a Homecoming Queen than any other girl in history ever has…and what's more is, she knows it. That's why I voted for the idiot."

"Tch," Sasuke scoffed. "A waste of a vote."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Hush, it's almost your turn. Focus on not tripping."

"_Sasuke!_"

"Your second nominee this year," Mr. Sarutobi continued, and the girl ahead of them whose name he couldn't remember began her trek across the field with Sai in tow, "is Miss Ami Watanabe. Ami is a member of the track team, as well as captain of the volleyball team and Vice President of the Student Council. Ami hopes to attend a cosmetology school one day to become a hair stylist. Your second nominee: Ami Watanabe!"

More cheers erupted as Ami and Sai fell into place beside Ino and Chouji, and Sasuke took Sakura's arm bracingly in his own. She glanced at him nervously, but smiled nonetheless, an adorable blush on her cheeks that made his breath come out a bit ragged. It was _impossible_ not to think of what they had done the night before, but now was certainly not the time to demand a continuation.

"And your third nominee this year," Mr. Sarutobi announced, and at Sasuke's subtle nod, they began their sojourn across the field as well, to uproarious applause, "is Miss Sakura Haruno! Sakura is co-captain of the varsity cheerleading squad, as well as a starting pitcher for the softball team. She is ranked first in the senior class and plans to attend Konoha University to major in medicine, with the hopes of becoming a surgeon someday. Your third and final Homecoming Queen nominee, Sakura Haruno!"

The loudest applause yet reached them as they made the trip (without so much as a stumble, even in the heels Sakura was wearing), but it didn't inspire much confidence in Sakura, who kept her smile plastered in place, but hissed to him, "They are only clapping for me because _you're_ escorting me. God. Next time, I'm getting someone ugly and heavily hated to escort me. Bullshit."

Sasuke's smirk widened as he realized Sakura had just accidentally complimented him, and he made a mental note to himself to tease her for that later.

"And now, the moment you've all been waiting for," Mr. Sarutobi announced, as the cheering just got louder and louder, everyone shouting out support for their choice of nominee. Tenten, last year's Queen, stood holding her crown, waiting to pass it on to her successor. "And a very, very small margin separated the Queen from the runner-up. This year's Konoha Senior High School Homecoming Queen is…"

Sasuke smirked again. She really had no idea, did she?

"_Sakura Haruno!_"

"Told you," he mumbled to Sakura, whose jaw dropped as the crowd jumped to their feet.

"No way," she hissed, eyes wide in disbelief as Tenten, beaming, tugged her up to the middle of the group and laid the crown on top of her satin pink curls. "N-_What?_"

Sasuke couldn't help the laugh that bubbled out of his throat. She truly hadn't expected the victory he'd seen coming a mile away, and fumbled with the crown on top of her head around the delirious smile that quirked on her lips. Camera flashes exploded in his eyes, memorializing the moment, and Ino, in true Ino fashion, broke ranks, sprinted over to her best friend, and threw her arms around her neck, ripping her away from Sasuke.

"IF IT WASN'T ME, AT LEAST IT WAS YOU!" Ino screamed, hugging her tightly. "I VOTED FOR YOU!"

"I voted for _you!_" Sakura laughed. "Calm down, you're gonna frizz your hair!"

Ino drew back _immediately, _but Sasuke felt a great fondness for her all the same; it had been Ino's dream since birth to be Homecoming Queen, but she showed nothing but joy for her best friend when she won instead. It showed the strength and indestructibility of their friendship, and he was glad his stupid girl had such a loyal sister.

Tenten then draped the Homecoming Queen sash around Sakura's shoulder and waist and handed her a bouquet of flowers, all while Sakura beamed incredulously at the unexpected honor, and waved to an adoring crowd. Sasuke saw Iruka and Kakashi just about lose their minds from their position at the pressbox, pointing to her and telling anyone who would listen, "That's our daughter! That's our daughter!" Their friends in the stands, and on the sidelines with the football team and cheerleading squad, all screamed joyfully as Sakura turned around to face Sasuke, a blazing look in her eye.

"You didn't let me fall!" she squealed happily, launching herself into his arms, not caring about the sweat or dirt streaked onto his jersey. Normally, such a show of affection would be out of the question, but for Sakura, he would make an exception. (He always did.) He tossed one lazy arm around her, deciding not to care that this moment would be immortalized on film for the rest of their lives by all the Sasuke/Sakura shippers in the audience (namely, Kakashi), and he smirked into her perfectly-curled hair.

What a silly, stupid thing to fuss over.

"Don't just stand there!" Sakura snapped at him, pulling back from their hug. "The third quarter starts in two seconds and you've been playing like a punk. Get your ass into gear. I can't have you embarrass me at the dance tonight by showing up as the _losing quarterback._"

Sasuke just stared at her. Beautiful, radiant, hopelessly naïve and a real smartass to boot, dressed like a princess and hailed as a queen, scolding him for his poor performance like she had _any right…_

Well, if he'd been falling for her all this time, he'd just catapulted all the way to the bottom.

"Yes, Your Highness," he sneered ironically, with a mock incline of his head. Without another word, he jogged over to the bench, Sakura beaming after him, and thought that tonight, at the dance after the game, he might just have to pick up where they left off yesterday.

* * *

**note..** hi, bunnies. :) i gave sakura's homecoming dress the happy ending mine never got (it rained like crazy during homecoming. and my beautiful dress was ruined with mud and hellfire and damnation.) anyway. excited to let you guys know what's goin down at the homecoming dance. next chapter :)

on a serious note. tonight, hug your parents, hug your children, hug your pets and your friends and your loved ones and hug yourself, and be thankful for everything you have. send prayers and help and love to the victims, their friends and families, and the newtown community tonight. such senseless, horrible violence, and so many young lives taken away before they had a chance to really live. in times of terrible evil like this, focus on the beauty of life, the selflessness and heroism of the teachers and staff, and the strength and courage of the children and their families. i love all of you.

xoxo daisy :)


	10. Jump Then Fall

Jump Then Fall

The Konoha gym was decked out like a dream.

Silver and gold streamers lined the walls and ceilings, looped around the basketball hoops and dangled over the doorways like shimmery curtains. A red carpet had been laid out from the main entrance all the way to the dance floor. The massive gym was lit with a few strategically-placed lowlights and bright white twinkle bulbs that cast the entire space in a romantic glow.

The Homecoming dance was one of the events the Konoha student body anticipated most in the year, after Prom. It was open exclusively to the junior and senior classes, featured an impressive assortment of food, and was held long into the wee morning hours with a free deejay and limited teacher supervision. Sakura had had an amazing time last year with Kiba, but thoughts of her unfaithful ex-boyfriend couldn't have been further from her mind when she stepped inside the gym with her friends that evening.

Surprisingly, thoughts of Ami couldn't have been further from her mind, either. She had sort of compartmentalized her hatred of the girl Kiba had completely ruined their relationship with, and even if there was something undeniably empowering about defeating her in what was essentially a popularity contest, now was not the time to dwell on things that made her unhappy.

Tonight was a celebration, however shallow.

The football team had won. It was a narrow victory; for some reason, Sasuke just didn't seem to be on his game that night, but he pulled out an impressive final quarter throw to Kiba that clinched their sixth consecutive win, and put them directly on pace to make the division playoffs. The thrill of victory heightened the excitement at the dance afterwards, and everywhere she looked, Sakura saw smiling faces. This was a night out of someone else's life, it felt; a perfect night, a flawless night.

And then _he _walked in, and added entirely new dimensions to 'perfect.'

He was freshly showered, like the rest of the football players in attendance, wearing his varsity jacket and jeans and a confident, arrogant smirk, because even with his sub-par performance, he was still the high school hero. People just sort of parted the way for him; it was one of the things she admired most about Sasuke, how his presence was so authoritative that people moved out of his way without him needing to ask. He cut an impressive figure that night, the lowlights bouncing off the sharp angles of his face and bringing out the smoky silver in his eyes as they rested directly on her.

"So, so unfair how you win the crown _and_ the sexiest escort," Ino grumbled in her ear, making her giggle and blush. "I'm getting some punch. It's time to reevaluate my life."

With that she took off for the snack table, and Sasuke immediately took her place at Sakura's side. Before he could protest, she seized his hand and dragged him to the dance floor; to her shock, he settled only for an unhappy glare rather than push her off of him. He even swayed along slightly when she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. The song was slow and pretty, and when he rested his hands lazily on her waist, her heart soared.

"That was a lucky win tonight and you know it," she said, at his arrogant expression.

"I could say the same for you," he countered without missing a beat.

"Oh, please. You acted like it was some foregone conclusion that I was gonna win."

"Tch. The only one who didn't know already was _you._ Naïve as ever. No way you can handle college."

"Well I'll have _you_ to help me out, won't I?" she teased, in what was rather a bold move on her part, implying that this tenuous bond that existed between them right now would carry on next year and beyond. But there was something about the atmosphere in the gym that evening, something about the darkness and the shimmery lights and the music and the people and the thrill of being 16 and invincible, something about Sasuke holding her with that loose, lazy grip of his that lent her a backbone she might never have had otherwise.

She was rewarded with Sasuke's slow smirk, as good a response as she was ever going to get, and decided to just bite the bullet. This conversation had to happen sometime, and since she was feeling pretty confident tonight, now was as good a time as any.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" she asked.

His eyebrow raised slightly. "We are talking."

She rolled her eyes.

"Obviously. I mean, like…alone. Just us. I think…we should."

Understanding dawned in his eyes, and he sighed,removing his hands from her waist and shoving them into his pockets. "Yeah, I guess we should."

She wasn't remotely encouraged by _that_ response; a few minutes ago, she'd been fairly certain that at least on some level, Sasuke's feelings were similar to hers. He'd certainly kissed her like that was the case, and judging by the lack of incredible awkwardness afterwards, she'd gone ahead and trusted her gut instinct: that things were changing between them, and for the better.

Now, though, she wasn't so sure. His heavy sigh, the way he was looking at this conversation like an obligation…maybe she'd misunderstood. Maybe Sasuke had only wanted to kiss her, and wasn't interested in anything else with her. Didn't want to have this annoying discussion about _feelings._

This was marginally horrifying, but she decided to do it anyway. She was Homecoming Queen; her first act couldn't be some cowardly cop-out of what could potentially be the most important conversation she'd ever had.

"Um. Okay. The, uh…most of the school's roped off and it's freezing outside, but the girls' locker room should be empty by now."

He nodded curtly and headed out of the gym. Sakura ignored the curious stares thrown their way as they left together after just a few dances, her heart racing as she watched Sasuke's strong back and broad shoulders lead the way.

_Is this a mistake?_ She thought wildly. _Oh my God, he really could just be in this for sex or something…he might be about to let me down. Downplay what happened between us, write it off like it was nothing. Shit. SHIT. I can't do this. I can't let him do this. Not again._

She was working herself into a frenzy by now, and barely noticed that she had passed through the hallway and was inside the girls' locker room until Sasuke shut the door behind her. She blinked and looked up at him, suddenly terrified, but he moved away from her, checking to see that they were completely alone. When he was through, he reached behind her and flicked the lock shut, then looked at her expectantly.

It was completely quiet, with only the thunderous bass from the gym next door and the muffled lyrics of party songs echoing softly in the room. Sakura was sure he had to hear her heart pounding; her head suddenly hurt. The crown resting on her hair felt prickly and uncomfortable. With a hand she told herself wasn't shaking, she reached up and removed it, set it down on the wooden bench in front of the lockers before returning her gaze to his face.

"If it…" she began, her voice squeaky, "I mean…you know. What happened between us yesterday. In my room."

"You don't need to paint a fucking picture," he muttered somewhat harshly, his expression twisting into one of deepest annoyance. "I know."

She frowned a bit, irritated with his sudden irritation, and snapped, "Well, shit, Sasuke. You acted like nothing happened, so I thought maybe it really meant nothing to you. Jesus."

"And it meant something to _you?_" he asked her, challenging.

She replied before she could think, a classic Sakura mistake, but right now, honesty was the only card she had to play.

"Yeah, actually it did! It meant a lot, Sasuke! But if it was just something to do for you, tell me now, so I can stop building up this one-sided fantasy world where…"

But that was as far as she got, because he grabbed her corsage-covered wrist, slammed her up against her own gym locker, and kissed her with all his strength.

Any preconceived notions she had about Sasuke's disinterest in her flew right out the window, along with her sanity.

* * *

Her dress was satiny and smooth under his hands, but at that moment, he wanted nothing more than to peel it off of her. Leave the shiny silver material in shreds and tatters on the floor.

_Slow down, you idiot,_ he told himself, but his body betrayed him as he deepened the kiss. Sakura was clearly shocked by his bold move, but she responded just as she had the night before. With immediate, urgent, almost violent reciprocity.

Still, this was happening way too fast. Could he be blamed, though? How long had he waited to hold Sakura in his arms? How many months had he spent watching her through guarded eyes, waiting for an opportunity that might never present itself? How many nights had he tossed and turned in the frustrating moments before sleep, picturing what satin pink would look like on his dark cotton sheets, the sounds she might make as he…

"Sasuke," she whispered against his lips, jerking him back into the moment. "Sasuke…wait."

His hopes came crashing down around him. She was going to let him down, he knew. Tell him some crap about only liking him as a friend, about still having feelings for Kiba…how yesterday meant nothing, and…

"We have to slow down," she went on, pulling back a little and looking up at him with starlight in her eyes. "Just…let's just talk about this. Before it goes any further."

Suddenly, he was tired. Tired of trying to fill in the blanks on his own, without a cheat sheet. He needed to be honest with her, and he needed her to be honest with him. Sakura Haruno did not come with an instruction manual, so she would have to tell him what was what herself. He was done guessing.

"What do you want from me?" he finally asked, his voice strained. His hands hadn't loosened from her waist, but she didn't seem to mind.

"This is all happening so quickly, Sasuke," she murmured. "And…And I feel like I don't have time to catch up, but I also feel like…this was _always_ gonna happen. Like it's too fast but a long time coming. And I know it doesn't make any sense, but I really do like you, Sasuke. And not just as a friend."

There they were. The words he always wanted to hear from her, even before realizing that he did. The words he'd been hoping she might say, even when she was with Kiba and lightyears out of his reach. The words he never thought he'd actually hear.

But now that he was hearing them, was he ready for them? Ready for what they represented?

He swallowed hard and just stared at her. She looked more beautiful than ever with that painfully honest expression on her face, chest heaving, lips red and slightly swollen from kissing him. And she liked him back…maybe his feelings were still deeper than hers, but she'd said the magic words.

"I understand, you know," she said quietly, her hand rising to stroke his hair. "If you don't feel the same way. If what happened yesterday was…was a fluke."

A _fluke?_

She had no idea. Not one earthly clue.

"That's not what I'm looking for, though," Sakura went on. "Just a hook-up. That's not for me. So just tell me, Sasuke. Tell me that's all it was, and we can leave it where it is, we don't have to talk about it ever again. It can just be something stupid we did and now it's over. But I won't kiss you again unless this is for real. So tell me now."

He didn't have the words. Sakura was a girl who deserved Shakespeare and sonnets, and he was a silly, stupid boy who was harsh when he meant to be gentle. He didn't know how to articulate properly what was inside of him, even to the one person in the world who deserved to hear it most.

But for her, he would try.

"I want…whatever you'll let me have," he said softly.

Her eyes widened.

"Just…tell me what I should do. I've never done this before."

It stung to admit a weakness, a shortcoming, and Sasuke, even though he'd now made out _twice_ with the most popular girl at Konoha High School, was woefully lacking in experience in the romantic department. He didn't know how this was supposed to go, had never had a girlfriend before to know what it was like; he really hoped, though, that it would be similar to his friendship with Sakura, but with the added benefits of kissing her whenever he felt like it, and knowing no other guy would encroach on his territory.

Tears welled in stormy green eyes, and an incredulous smile lit her up from the inside until she was absolutely radiant against the dull gray backdrop of the girls' locker room.

"I think…" she said quietly, with a gentle kiss to the corner of his mouth, "we should head back to the dance before they send a search party."

He smirked.

"And tomorrow night, I think you should pick me up at eight."

"Hn. For what."

She smiled beautifully up at him, and replied, "For our first date, stupid. Don't be late."

* * *

**note..** hey, booboos. i'm in for the weekend with the flu, so while all my friends and my husband are out enjoying friday night, i am here. with my tissues and my sorrow. UGH. (get your flu shots, people.)

anyway. kind of a short little jawn, but this will set up some things i think you might enjoy. :) by think, i mean 'hope.' my neuroses will never let me feel confident in how anything i write is received by y'alls. let me know what you think, okay?

oh. and for the record. i love taylor swift's music (it's the girl in me, you know?) but i have found lately that i can't stand her as a person. what's wrong, t-swizzle. you're spreading it around all over hollywood and wondering why shit's not working out? BITCH IT'S NOT THEM IT'S YOU. tits, girl. just write some fucking songs so i can make some more fucking chapters. AND YOU'RE FROM WYOMISSING PENNSYLVANIA. bitch i know where that's at. you're about as country as i am. and i'm from PHILLY.

lolz. love you guys.

xoxo,

sicky.


	11. Mine

Mine

Sakura examined her reflection in the mirror, heart racing. She was somehow more intimidated by what she was preparing for right now than she had been prepping for Homecoming last weekend.

Her first date with Sasuke Uchiha.

Sometimes it just didn't feel real, that the past few days had been a dream; that he'd kissed her, not once on a whim but twice, told her he liked her, said the words she'd been longing to hear. It was like a week out of someone else's life, and after the spiraling vortex of misery she'd experienced after her break-up with Kiba (who still avoided her), it was too good to be true.

Only it _was,_ and now, she was faced with the monumental task of dressing to impress someone who was notoriously difficult to impress.

_He wakes up every day and rolls out of bed looking like a fucking movie star,_ she thought irritably, loathing the way her once-favorite purple dress fit her as she modeled it in front of the mirror. _And I'm supposed to keep up with THAT?_

"Everything all right, Sakura?" she heard Kakashi call through the door.

"Yeah!" she called back. "Just a…stupid wardrobe malfunction."

"Ah. Well, let us know if you need any help!"

He sounded _way_ too giddy considering the circumstances. Sakura rolled her eyes and giggled, selecting a black bodycon miniskirt from her closet and tugging it on instead of the dress. It was clear that one of her fathers plugged the Sasuke/Sakura love train hardcore, at least.

The same could not be said for her other father.

"Let us know if you need any mace!" Iruka called. "I know we give you some in your stocking every Christmas but you never even take them out of the _plastic,_ Sakura. What good is pepper spray gonna do you if when you really need it, it's still vacuum-packed? I tell you time and time again to keep it handy, and…"

"Dad!" she whined. "It's _Sasuke. _I'm not gonna need pepper spray when I'm around _Sasuke,_ he's scarier than anything that would try to hurt me!"

"It's meant to be used _on_ Sasuke, muffin."

"DAD!"

"I'm just saying!"

"Daddy, can you get him out of here or something? I need to find something awesome to wear and I cannot _concentrate_ when he's screaming ridiculousness at me."

She heard Kakashi chuckle from the hallway and guide Iruka downstairs, where he couldn't kick up anymore of a fuss. Sighing, she glanced at her closet and tried to find something appropriate.

It couldn't be too garish or sexy; that would look like she was trying too hard. Dejected, she tossed a sequined blouse into the bottom of the closet in a wrinkled heap. She selected an Argyle sweater instead, only to promptly discard that as well. _What am I, his TUTOR? GOD. Why is this such a pain in the ass?_

_Oh, come on, Sakura. You know what you're doing. This is Sasuke. He's not gonna care what you wear. As long as YOU think it looks good, that's all that matters. And girl, you can never go wrong with a gray sweater._

Slightly heartened, she selected a thin, loose gray sweater that sloped off one shoulder, conservative enough to look casual, but a little daring with the exposed skin and how it fell on her. Giggling, she reflected on how she'd never had _any_ of this trouble when she was dating Kiba.

Black nylons went on next, because it is a universally-accepted beauty secret that black nylons made any outfit sexy and classy automatically, followed by ankle-high boots with a heel that would lift her to maybe Sasuke's nose, if she was lucky.

_I wonder where he's gonna take me,_ she thought dreamily, running a ceramic straightener dazedly through her hair.

She felt like, well, a _lady_ in this situation with Sasuke. Dating Kiba for a year, she felt like a girl; he didn't take her to fancy restaurants, they jumped right into the sexual aspect of a relationship without any proper waiting, she almost always paid for herself when they went anywhere. And there was nothing _wrong_ with that arrangement, but it certainly felt strange to be seeing Sasuke, who despite his bad attitude and terrible social skills, was, surprisingly, a _gentleman._

There was something very innocent, very classic, very _terrifying _about a first date. She'd been a thousand places with Sasuke before, just the two of them, and there was never any awkwardness, any discomfort. Their relationship was perfectly natural, as easy as breathing. But now they'd changed the game completely. What would their dynamic be tonight?

_I hope it's exactly the same,_ she thought with a faraway smile, pulling her blunt bangs straight so they fell into her eyes. _I hope he still teases me and I hope I still get on his nerves, and we just add the sexy part in as well._

There was a knock at the front door, and that _stunned_ her. _He's picking me up at the door?_ She thought, eyes wide as she barely remembered to unplug the straightener. A panicked final look at her reflection in the mirror confirmed that she'd done everything possible to enhance her beauty; a quick swipe of peach-colored lip gloss and she was finally done.

Sasuke picking her up at the door was another novelty. It happened in books, in old movies, but never in real life. Kiba honked at the curb when he came to pick her up and she thought that was romantic.

It was _impossible_ to fight the smile on her face as she hurried down the stairs to greet him.

Though he was talking to both of her fathers and partially hidden, Sakura drank him in like she was dehydrated. He looked effortlessly, _impossibly_ handsome, in dark jeans and a black button-up shirt underneath his letterman jacket. There were no flowers or chocolates in his hand, but Sakura was grateful for that; she enjoyed a _little_ of the old-time romantic charm he was laying on, but she was a 21st century girl at heart. That he came to the door to get her was romance enough.

"Hey," she said breathlessly, interrupting whatever terrible threats Iruka was not-so-subtly laying on him.

Sasuke's gaze snapped to her face as she came down the stairs, and the slow smirk that unfolded on his face made her melt. She blushed all the way to the roots of her hair and decided that perhaps he _was_ impressed with her appearance after all.

Iruka cleared his throat, breaking the googly-eyed spell she was under, and she composed herself before continuing down the stairs.

"Hey," Sasuke said, his voice quiet as ever, but there was a warmth in his eyes she'd never seen before.

"I'm ready, sorry if I kept you waiting," she said, even though she knew he'd only been there for about thirty seconds. Still, thirty seconds of listening to Iruka list all the ways he could decapitate a person had to be exhausting, and not necessarily prophetic of a good first date. "All set?"

"Aa," he murmured. "I'll have her home early," he added to her fathers, respectfully inclining his head, something Sakura had literally never seen him do before.

"Not TOO early!" Kakashi said cheerfully, at the same time Iruka snarled, "Sure as shit, you will, if you don't want me to come after you!"

Sakura sighed, half-amused, half-mortified, and kissed both her dads goodbye. Iruka was still grumbling, but Kakashi ruffled her perfectly straightened hair and spared her a crinkle-eyed smile.

"Don't embarrass us," he said, fake-stern. "If you play your cards right, we could have an Uchiha in the family."

"_DADDY._"

And before either one of her dads could humiliate her further, she snatched her coat, seized Sasuke's hand, and yanked him out the door.

* * *

"So where are you taking me?" she asked with a flirty smile, and Sasuke could safely say he had no idea.

Or rather, he _did_ have an idea. An entire plan at the beginning of the day where he would take her, what they would do, but all of that flew out the window, along with rational thought, when Sakura danced down the stairs like something out of his most private fantasy. More beautiful than any girl ever was, smiling and beaming and happy and all for _him._

He swallowed hard. _Don't screw it up, stupid. She's always been gorgeous, stop getting tongue-tied like you're the fucking JV team watching cheerleading practice._

"Surprise," he said, with a smirk.

"Sasuke you _know_ I hate surprises," she whined.

"I also know you said you were on a boy diet, but you're here with me, so what does that tell you."

"That you have an annoyingly specific memory," she muttered, but he detected the amusement in her voice. So far, so good; he was worried that perhaps changing the dynamic in their relationship might make things awkward between them, and the absolute last thing he wanted to have happen would be to take his easy friendship with Sakura and turn it into something uncomfortable. But it seemed like the only things that were changing between them were the way he no longer hid his frequent looks in her direction, and of course the kisses that threatened to consume him whole.

And he could live with that.

"Seriously, where are you taking me?" she pressed from the front seat.

"Quiet, woman," he ordered. "Did you eat yet?"

"No. I was too nervous to eat." At his surprised glance, she blushed furiously and pretended to look at something out the window instead. The Freudian slip, however, had him smirking in satisfaction. Nervous, huh?

_Me, too, Sakura._

"All right."

It was sometimes a chore to find something to eat with Sakura, considering that she was a vegetarian, but he'd spent many years as one of her best friends, and knew her likes and dislikes better than almost anybody. If he was unsure about the rest of the date (and he was, because he'd never fucking done this before), he was confident in _this._

"Froyo?!" she said happily, as he pulled into the parking lot of Konoha's nicest frozen yogurt shop. "Wow, Sasuke, _home run!_"

His smirk widened. Maybe not the world's healthiest dinner or the most romantic place to have the first part of their first date, but he knew Sakura. And he knew, without ever really having had to ask her, what she was looking for on a date.

And he'd choke down plain vanilla froyo for hours if she'd keep that happy, glowing smile on her face all night long.

As she happily added a generous helping of strawberry topping to her pomegranate flavored yogurt, he leaned in behind her to murmur in her ear.

"Get it to go," he said quietly, enjoying the way she shivered at the close proximity. She smelled _amazing_ up close, like cinnamon and roses, and the confusion in her shiny green eyes was overpowered by the way they darkened in attraction. It became extremely difficult to keep his hands to himself, standing so close to her like this, but he figured he had all the right in the world to place one hand on her lower back. When she didn't bite his head off, he kept it there. "We'll eat somewhere else."

Sakura just nodded and leaned in closer to his side as she added chocolate sprinkles to her disgusting confection. When it was their turn to pay the cashier, he noticed her rummaging in her purse for some money, and frowned.

"Put it away," he ordered, irritated. It was a _date,_ she'd been on dates before, hadn't she? What was she pulling out her money for?

"Oh," she said, surprised. "Um, are you sure?"

"Tch," he grumbled, annoyed that she must have been used to paying for herself on dates when she was with Kiba. "You don't pay when you're with me."

"That can be true _some_ of the time," she said sharply; apparently there was a closet feminist inside of Sakura. "But this is the 21st century. You pay sometimes, and I'll pay sometimes. Capisce?"

It was annoying to think about, given that he'd been raised in a household where men paid for women on dates and there was no compromising involved. And he almost argued it, but he caught onto what Sakura was saying.

Next time.

There was going to be a next time.

Smirking a little, he nodded and pressed the money into the cashier's hand.

... ... ...

"I'm going crazy trying to figure out where you're taking me!" Sakura giggled from the front seat, their frozen yogurt in a paper bag on her lap. "Is this like, my last meal or something? And you're taking me somewhere to off me? Is this because I made you be my escort to Homecoming? Because I _barely_ even twisted your arm, you volunteered, basically."

"You talk too much," he said curtly, secretly loving the way her lilting voice sounded in his car. It _still_ wasn't awkward, and he was shocked at how easily they were making the transition from Just Friends to Something More. It felt as effortless as it had falling in love with her in the first place.

They were approaching their destination, and with every stoplight, Sasuke's apprehension grew.

He had a plan for the second part of his date with Sakura Haruno, but now that he was nearing its execution, he was starting to have second thoughts. What seemed natural and maybe even romantic in his head this morning, now seemed silly and a tad bit creepy. What if she was so skeeved out by what he had in mind that she dumped him before they even started officially going out?

And when the hell had _Sasuke Uchiha_ turned into a fucking _coward?_

He decided to plow forward now that he'd already started. He was stubborn and arrogant, if not crippled by a frightening inferiority complex. But he'd made a plan, and he'd stick to it. Sakura deserved to know how he felt and this was the best way to show her.

With that, he pulled into the high school parking lot.

"The…school?" Sakura said, confused. "What're we doing here?"

Sasuke threw the car into park and opened the door. "Come on," he said softly.

Sakura showed every sign of wanting to ask more questions about what on earth they were doing at the Konoha High School parking lot in the middle of the night when they were _supposed_ to be on a date, but she said nothing, merely picked up the paper bag of frozen yogurt and followed him out of the car.

It was getting colder now the later it got, and the walk from the parking lot to the senior doors of KHS had Sakura shivering in her little sweater. She looked like a model in it, but he had to shake his head at the practicality of a sweater that didn't make you warm. Without a thought, he removed his varsity jacket and slung it across her shoulders.

The blush that stole across her face had him blushing, too, and he quickly turned away.

The senior doors were, predictably, locked at such a late hour on a Saturday night. This didn't stop Sasuke, though, who'd had to break into the school more than once with Naruto for a variety of reasons; with a quick look around, he whipped a credit card from his wallet and slid it between the crack of the door to jimmy the lock open.

"Sasuke are we breaking _in?_" Sakura hissed in panic from behind him, her hand on his arm to stop him. "Are you crazy? Did you forget a book or something? You can borrow mine, you know!"

"Just keep your voice down," he muttered with a smirk. He couldn't help it, he _loved_ to rile her up. Maybe if she was frazzled, they would be on level ground with each other. A few seconds careful maneuvering, and the ancient door swung forward to admit them. "C'mon."

Placing his hand at her waist again, he led her inside and shut the door behind them.

The school was empty, the way he knew it would be. Sakura's heels clacked loudly on the freshly-waxed floors as he guided her through the senior hallway, still festooned for Homecoming.

"I can't believe you broke in!" she whispered.

"You broke in, too. Be quiet."

She giggled in spite of herself. Sasuke knew Sakura was relatively straightedge, very studious and school-oriented, but he also knew she was a secret thrill-seeker. Something of a rebel, even. He knew she would be scandalized to break into school for about a minute, then she would look at it as an adventure.

They crept along the corridors to the junior hallway, and paused in front of the junior honors math room. Sakura blinked, clearly confused, as Sasuke jimmied the door open and nodded her inside.

"I mean, points for the whole breaking and entering thing," Sakura said slowly, looking around the abandoned classroom where they'd spent so many hours laboring over proofs and Pythagoras, "but this is bringing back terrible memories of us staying till eight o'clock trying to figure out what the hell anybody meant by the quadratic formula." She turned around to face him, the moonlight casting shadows off her face and starlight shining in her eyes. "So…what are we doing here?"

Sasuke stared down at her, and it was hard for him to breathe, let alone speak. It took a few moments of self-motivation, a few moments of trying to regulate his heartbeat. He had to tell her. She had to know.

He swallowed hard and shoved his hands in his pockets because he didn't want her to see how sweaty his palms were. Leaning up casually against the doorframe, hoping he looked a lot more relaxed than he felt, he said the words he knew would change their lives.

"I took you here," he said quietly, casually, "so you could see the place I realized I was in love with you."

* * *

**note..** lololol. close encounters and this in one day. i will be accepting commissions to erect monuments in my honor.

just kidding. i love you guys.

xoxo daisy :)


	12. Stay Stay Stay

Stay Stay Stay

It felt like all the air had left the room.

Or, maybe that too much air had filled it, and that was why she felt so lightheaded.

There was a ringing silence after Sasuke spoke the words that changed _everything._ He looked as nonchalant as he ever did, hands in the pockets of his letterman jacket, a somewhat ironic smirk on his face like he hadn't just revolutionized their entire relationship. Leaning up against the doorframe like he owned it.

And oh God how she _loved him._

She knew the expression on her face had to be completely unattractive. Mouth agape, eyes wide, chest heaving as she tried to process what he'd just said, she knew that she'd just wasted hours of careful preparation on her appearance just to blow it when it most mattered, but she didn't care.

"You…" she squeaked, before trying again. "You're saying that…Sasuke…you _love_ me?"

"Aa," he replied easily. "Maybe forever. But I realized it here. In this room."

His gaze flickered from her face to a seat by the window. Sakura remembered he'd sat there last year, next to her; she remembered studying with him, explaining proofs in detail and listening while he explained the Pythagorean theorem to her. Many, many excruciating hours. It was here, then, that he realized it?

_Not the most romantic revelation in the world,_ she thought, her lips lifting into an incredulous smile. _But he wouldn't be my Sasuke if it was._

"Sorry if that changes things," he muttered, and an adorably insecure expression took the place of his previous nonchalance. He looked out the window instead of at her, while she trembled like a leaf in the wind, too bowled over by what she was hearing to articulate anything intelligently. "But I figured you should know."

"I…I don't…I can't believe this. Sasuke if you felt this way for this long why didn't you tell me?"

He frowned, like he was confused by what she was asking. "You had a boyfriend," he murmured, rubbing the back of his head in what was clearly a self-conscious gesture that made her heart melt all over again. "You loved _him._ I had to wait."

Sakura couldn't coax her lips out of a smile if she tried. Instead, she almost _floated_ over to Sasuke, resting her hands on his chest, one over his heart; it was pounding nearly as hard as her own, and his silver-black eyes darkened immediately, sending a spike of something electric rocketing up her spine.

"I did love him. I did love Kiba," she conceded, her smile widening. "But I was never in love with him. Even at our best. Not like the way I was with you."

He raised an eyebrow, a slow smirk stretching across his lips. "Not like the way I _am_ with you," she corrected herself, and Sasuke's hands were on her hips in the next moment, yanking her in against him. The electricity between them sharpened into something like fire, and she exhaled sharply through her nose as she watched Sasuke's gaze snap from her eyes to her lips, then back again.

"You have no idea how long I've wanted you," she whispered, before lifting herself up on tiptoe (even in heels, she was still much shorter than he was) to kiss him sweetly on the corner of his mouth. "No _idea,_ Sasuke. I just…"

He cut her off then, and not a moment too soon. He turned his head to kiss her properly, a kiss full of so much shocking, aching _love_ that tears immediately flooded her eyes. She never would have thought Sasuke – quiet, aloof, chilly Sasuke Uchiha – to be capable of so much affection, but it seemed that, like everything else so blisteringly wonderful about him, he had his own careful, private way of expressing it. He wasn't one for grandiose gestures, poetry recitations, public displays or clichés; he was Sasuke, pure and simple, with all that entailed.

And she loved him from the bottom of her heart for who he was.

Her hands slid from his chest up through his hair before her arms wound around his neck, permitting no distance between them. He released a strangled groan into her mouth at the contact and in a flash, had her lifted up on her old desk, stepping between her legs as the kiss suddenly took on an entirely new dimension.

It was impossible not to compare her romantic reality with her sexual past; perhaps it was unfair, because Sasuke seemed to eclipse Kiba in every conceivable way, but she couldn't help it. Sasuke awakened something in her that Kiba couldn't possibly touch. She'd kissed Kiba a million times, slept with him a thousand, and she'd been attracted to him every minute of their relationship, but _nothing_ compared to kissing Sasuke. _Nothing_ compared to knowing that he liked her, wanted her, loved her.

She wanted friction. She wanted heat. She wanted that perfect, gorgeous mess of connection with Sasuke, and all rationale flew out the window when he deepened the kiss, her legs sealing themselves around his narrow waist as a wanton moan escaped her lips.

Sasuke smirked dangerously at her before pulling back a bit to kiss her neck. Hot breath fanned against her throat as she clawed his back; the need to shed her tights, skirt and sweater became all-consuming, and never once did the prospect of getting caught cross her mind. She forgot where she was, what she was doing. She forgot that they'd broken into their high school illegally, and were currently hooking up on her old desk in the junior honors math room. She forgot everything, willfully and gleefully, in favor of memorizing every nanosecond of this beautiful moment with Sasuke.

_He loves me,_ she thought, dazed with the notion and drunk on the reality as Sasuke's tongue traced a sinful path from her jaw to her collarbone. _He said it, he said he loves me!_

"You're crying," Sasuke murmured suddenly, looking up at her from beneath his messy black fringe, eyes cloudy with desire but also tinged with concern. "What's wrong."

"Nothing!" she laughed, choking on happy tears. "I'm such a _loser._ Sasuke I'm so fucking sorry I didn't tell you before. I'm sorry I dated Kiba when I still loved you, and dragged him into everything and made all this so crazy, and I'm sorry I tried _not_ to love you and I'm sorry I…"

"Stop apologizing," he growled, wiping away a stray tear from her cheek with the pad of his thumb. "Just…stop talking."

Sasuke was Sasuke. A man of few words and a man of action, but Sakura would take action any day. His quiet, enduring care for her, understated but startlingly present, his gruff, no-nonsense demeanor and his adorable discomfort with discussing his feelings, all of it made him exactly who he was:

Someone she wanted to stay.

"My dad's gonna _hate_ this," she giggled, drawing a startled chuckle from Sasuke, who clearly hadn't been expecting that. "Seriously. I mean you know Daddy adores you – and he's been on the Sasuke/Sakura fan train since we were in kindergarten – but Dad? I don't know."

"Hates me that much, huh?" Sasuke drawled, kissing her jaw.

"You have no idea. He gets me pepper spray every Christmas, and I found out tonight he's been hoping I'd use them on _you._"

"I told you to stop talking."

It was the easiest thing he'd ever told her to do, and she shut up instantly. Her fingers drifted back down his chest, pausing at the buttons on his shirt, before her eyes met his again, shyly this time. A silent request for permission.

Sasuke was miles ahead of her in so many ways. He was a peerless athlete, an excellent student, strong and fast and capable and decisive, but in this one area, she was more experienced than he was. She knew, even if he didn't, that once they surrendered to this incredible storm brewing between them, there would be no stopping it. No going back.

And Sakura was more than ready to take that plunge.

* * *

If you had told Sasuke last week that he would find himself in this situation – inside his old math classroom with a willing Sakura Haruno sprawled provocatively over her old desk, legs wrapped around his waist, hands ready to rid him of his shirt – he might have laughed at you.

Now, there was nothing funny about the situation. This was everything he'd fantasized about since realizing he wanted Sakura for himself. Not in a million years could he have predicted that she would look three times as alluring as she did in his dirtiest dreams.

But here she was. Breathtakingly beautiful, eyes open and trusting, filled with desire heated and reckless enough to match his own. She wanted him, he knew, and he also knew his self-control was waning. Everything about her screamed sex.

If he wanted this, he could have it. Sakura was giving him permission, encouraging him even, with every subtle roll of her hips and every expectant flutter of her eyelashes. In this field, she knew what she was doing, and even if she was more experienced than he was, he wasn't stupid enough not to realize where all of this was leading.

And the knowledge that he could have Sakura right now, that she was ready and as eager as he was, was more tempting than anything else he could have imagined. Right here, on this desk, the same place he realized he'd fallen in love with her, he could live out months of dark, filthy fantasies, and…

Something held him back.

Yes, they both wanted this, but didn't Sakura deserve better? It wasn't her first time, but it would be her first time with _him._ And he knew, deep down, that he had to make it special. His mother had (unfortunately) instilled in him that he was to be a gentleman, and even if he was a jerk 99% of the time, in this one regard, he had to think about the future.

For as amazing as it doubtlessly would be, he knew he would regret it. Acting on his immediate desire for her, instead of taking things slowly, like a proper relationship.

"I want you," he confessed darkly, and he allowed himself the momentary victory of watching her lick her lips in satisfaction. "But…"

She blinked, then smiled, understandingly. "But not right now. Like this." She rolled her hips again to make a point, and Sasuke hissed before glaring at her.

"Yeah."

She giggled.

"Never thought you'd be such a…"

"Sakura if you say _prude, _you're gonna walk home."

"I was gonna say 'gentleman!'" she laughed, kissing him chastely on the lips. "I guess I'm just…not really used to it."

_I bet,_ he thought in irritation, helping her down from the desk. _Inuzuka probably banged her the same fucking minute she said he could._

"I think you're right, though. I think we should wait a little bit. Take things slowly."

"Aa."

"This is just…just the best date. The best night. I'm so happy, you made me so fucking happy, Sasuke, you have no idea, and…"

Sasuke stiffened suddenly, head whipping towards the door. "Shh," he hissed. "You hear that?"

Sakura craned her neck to see what he was talking about, just as the sound of rusty wheels rolling along the linoleum floor became louder and louder. Green eyes went wide in fear.

"Shit, the janitor's here!" she whispered. "Sasuke, what do we do?"

Sasuke's concern that they might lose their easy dynamic as they made the transition from friends to lovers was never further away than in that moment. Because behind Sakura's horror, there was _excitement._ She was secretly _thrilled_ that without some adventurous quick thinking, they risked getting caught in their illicit jaunt. Her rebellious streak hadn't been lost in translation.

"Out the window," he hissed.

"Are you crazy?! Sasuke we're on the second floor!"

Grinning at her, he gestured to his back. "Then hop on, scaredy-cat."

... ... ...

"We left our froyo," Sakura laughed as Sasuke walked her up the driveway to her house. "We're busted if they find it, I'm the only one in school who eats pomegranate froyo with chocolate sprinkles."

"That's because it's revolting," Sasuke replied easily, smirking when Sakura elbowed him in the side.

They stopped on the top step, the porchlight illuminating Sakura's face in the darkness. She was blushing, whether from him or the chilly night air, he couldn't guess, but he liked it either way. Wind tousled her pin-straight hair back and forth as she smiled shyly up at him.

"Did you wanna come inside for a little while?" she asked.

Did _everything_ she say have to tempt him?

He almost said yes, before registering that he was not as alone with Sakura as he would have preferred; two sets of eyes peered through the living room window around the curtains. Sakura apparently hadn't yet noticed that her fathers were watching their exchange.

Knowing he hadn't yet won Iruka over, he doubted taking Sakura up on her offer would win him any brownie points. And if this thing was going to last between them, he couldn't have Iruka hate him forever.

"It's late," he said evasively. "Get inside."

"All right. Sasuke…thank you _so much_ for tonight. For _everything._ It was _perfect._"

Frankly, he could have done without the whole nearly-being-caught-by-the-janitor-so-they-had-to-sneak-out-the-window-and-shinny-down-the-drainpipe part of their evening, but he decided not to mention it to her. The smile on her face was so genuine that it made him smile, too, something that he typically avoided. But Sakura's happiness was contagious, even more so knowing that he'd made it possible.

"Good night," she said softly.

He doubted that they would make a cliché couple – knew that many of their dates from now on would involve terrible horror movies, boundless road trips, everything they'd always done with the awesome addition of hooking up – but he decided to indulge in one cliché tradition. He smirked – it was closer to a smile, it always was when she was around – and inclined his head. Spitefully hoping Iruka was still watching, he kissed her gently, the perfect way to end a nearly-perfect first date.

"See you tomorrow," he said softly, pulling back to memorize the way she looked in the lamplight with stars in her eyes.

"For what?"

"I'm your boyfriend, I can see you when I want," he replied arrogantly, pretending not to glow inside at the way she _shined_ hearing his careless remark. "Get inside, it's freezing."

"Okay, okay. Jerk." She removed his varsity jacket and handed it back to him. "Put this on before you get pneumonia. You'll be garbage at the final football game next week and I can't have you embarrassing me by losing."

It looked like they would retain everything about them that made them such good friends: the same playful, witty banter, the same laidback easiness that made them so comfortable with each other, the same unspoken but unbreakable devotion to each other that led them both to this point. And that made Sasuke happier than he had any right to be: knowing he could have Sakura as a friend and as a Something More. Have his cake and eat it, too, so to speak.

There _was_ such a thing as getting _everything_ you wanted.

"Annoying," he said fondly.

"Yeah, yeah. Now get out of here, my dad might shoot you if you stick around."

He smirked and turned back to his car, one hand in his pocket, the other raised in a lazy farewell. He heard Sakura close the door shut behind her as he slid into the driver's seat, victorious smirk in place; he turned the key in the ignition and drove off, unable to feel anything but complete and utter satisfaction with how everything had gone.

Inexperienced he may be, but as far as first dates went?

Homerun.

* * *

**note..** sorry to keep you waiting so long for such remorseless fluffernutter, but...well, i guess i'm not sorry. let me know if you liked it!

(my husband and a bunch of our friends and i just booked a trip to new orleans next month. never been before, should be a good time. you guys have any spring break plans? holla.)

xoxo Daisy :)


	13. Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Tradition at Konoha High School dictated that, on the last day of the football season, the day of the championship game, the girlfriends of all the players on the team would wear their boyfriends' jerseys to school for good luck.

Last year, Sakura had come to school wearing number 24 on her back, underneath the name Inuzuka emblazoned in gold. She'd worn it with pride, handed it over that night at the championship game, and then felt irrational, immeasurable guilt when Konoha had lost. Like she'd been bad luck or something. A jinx; because she'd sullied Kiba's jersey with her unluckiness, he'd blown every pass that evening, Sasuke ended up in the hospital, and Konoha had lost the championship game to their division enemies.

So when Sasuke strode up to her locker that morning and shoved his jersey unceremoniously into her hands (to the joy of their friends who had gathered around them to witness the history-changing moment), everyone was shocked when she shied away from it like it was covered in scorpions.

"No!" she said sharply. "Get that thing away from me!"

Ino's jaw dropped; Naruto burst out laughing; everyone else looked stunned, but none more so than Sasuke, whose widened eyes were equivalent to a scream.

"Huh?" he asked bemusedly.

Realizing that it looked like an outright rejection of Sasuke himself, Sakura blushed and backtracked.

"I wore Kiba's last year, and I jinxed it," she said flatly. "I'm not gonna jinx you, too."

"Oh, for God's sake," Ino snapped. "It wasn't _your_ fault that Oto played dirty, put that fucking jersey on."

"When I wore Kiba's, he didn't make one single catch that whole game," Sakura argued. "Sasuke's the quarterback. Think of the damage I could cause if I jinx the quarterback."

"Think of the damage you'll cause when all the chicks who like Sasuke see his girlfriend ain't wearing his jersey," Naruto pointed out, in a rare moment of wisdom.

Sakura's eyes narrowed as she zeroed in on Sasuke's winning smirk, picturing the way his admirers would interpret her refusal to wear her new boyfriend's jersey as a sign that he was free game again.

_Oh HELL no,_ she thought.

"Give me that!" she hissed, snatching the mesh fabric from Sasuke's hand. It was over her hand in a second, entirely too large for her, nearly completely covering her pleated cheerleading skirt. "If we lose this, it's _your_ fault," she added with a pointed glare at Sasuke, slamming her locker door shut.

Naruto laughed and clapped Sakura on the back as they all headed to lunch together. "Oh yeah, right, how can we lose?" he guffawed. "Not with our _stacked_ defense, there's no way!"

"Because your _stacked defense_ got its ass kicked last year during the playoffs," Ino reminded meanly, tossing her long blonde ponytail behind her shoulders.

"Yeah, and _you_ ended up with a broken arm," Sakura added, with a worried look in Sasuke's direction.

"It's not gonna happen again," he scoffed, careless. "You worry too much."

"Because _you_ don't worry _enough._"

She wished she could just be _excited_ for tonight's game. It would be her last opportunity to cheer for the football team, and Sasuke's last game ever. Everyone was in a frenzy that they had made the playoffs again, and everyone was _exhilarated_ that they were playing Oto two years in a row. It was nothing less than a grudge match, and adrenaline was running high. Everyone would be there that night, it would blow Homecoming's attendance out of the water.

She wished she could really get into the spirit of things (as a cheerleader, it was her job), but she couldn't get over her worry that Oto would pull another stunt like they had done last year, and Sasuke would get hurt again.

Then she felt a light pressure on the small of her back, and, blushing, realized it was Sasuke's hand. He wasn't much for PDA and neither was she; in fact, if you didn't know what had happened two weeks ago, you might never know they were together. But it made little gestures like this all the more meaningful.

"You worry too much," he repeated, with a gentle smile he only ever gave to her.

Sakura sighed and smiled back as they took their seats in the cafeteria. Maybe she was just being a downer, and Sasuke was right.

So how come she couldn't shake this feeling, then?

That something was going to go horribly, horribly wrong?

* * *

Her nervousness didn't abate when the school day ended, and when her dads drove her to the game that evening, she was two seconds away from a panic attack.

"What are you _worrying_ for?" Kakashi asked with a laugh from the front seat, pulling into the (already-crowded) parking lot by the football stadium. "You look beautiful, you'll be terrific, and the boys are going to win."

"But it's _Oto,_ Daddy," Sakura protested.

Even Iruka, who resented the entirety of the football team simply because he had a young, attractive teenage daughter to look out for, wasn't worried.

"In a fair fight, they can't take Konoha," he pointed out.

"Since when does _Oto_ fight _fair?_" Sakura argued. "Am I the only one who forgot how they put Sasuke in the hospital last year?"

They all got out of the car and Iruka handed over her pompoms while Kakashi fiddled with the digital camera. Sakura wished she was as excited as they were – as _everyone_ was – for this sure-to-be-thrilling night, but she could barely summon a convincing smile before Daddy was snapping pictures of her left and right.

"Sasuke can handle himself," he reminded her. "Now smile!"

"Maybe all the little punk needs is a good hit to the head," Iruka muttered nastily.

"_Dad!_"

"Iruka knock it off, you're upsetting our little star."

"You're both _impossible!_ Ugh, I need to go warm up with the other girls. I'll see you after the game."

Kakashi smiled and hugged her tightly. "They'll be fine, Sakura," he said warmly, and she finally felt herself start to relax. Daddy never lied to her, and it was impossible not to feel at least a little bit better about the situation.

She jogged over to where the other girls were lined up, warming up for the game. People were filing into the bleachers, and it looked like Oto supporters showed up in droves on the other side. That would certainly heighten the crowd's energy, with so much opposition.

"Makes our job even easier," said Ino carelessly, when Sakura pointed that out. She bent her body into a perfect bridge to stretch, and added, "With how hype the fans are gonna be tonight, we won't have to work as hard. Not to mention…I doubt we'll have Abumi to worry about tonight, after you laid him out last time."

Sakura smirked. "Oh, yeah. There _is_ that."

Maybe she _was_ being paranoid. She wasn't sure how Oto had gotten away with what they did to Sasuke last year, but they'd have to be crazy to try something like that again. And Zaku was surely licking his wounds, having had his ass handed to him last time by a Konoha cheerleader. She was being stupid, like a frightened, overanxious little grandmother when really, this was _her_ night, too.

The last night she would spend on the track by the 50-yard line, at the top of the pyramid.

"You're gonna miss this, huh?" Ino said suddenly, and Sakura looked over to find her best friend's eyes dreamy with nostalgia as she looked out into the steadily-filling stands. "I know I will."

Sakura smiled and shook off her track pants to reveal her cheerleading uniform underneath, with a long-sleeved sweater this time instead of the teeny half-shirt they wore for warmer games. "You know we still have basketball season," she pointed out. "It's not the end of cheerleading, just the end of football season."

"You know what I mean," Ino sighed. "There's no guarantee I'll get into KU like you did. Maybe I'll end up in Suna, or Kusa, or Iwa…and there won't be anymore of…like, _this._" She nodded to the audience, to the chilly night air, to the football team gathering in on the field for warm-ups.

"You talk like we're graduating tomorrow," Sakura giggled, before fluffing her friend's ponytail playfully. "You told me to stop worrying and enjoy myself. Allow me to echo the sentiment."

"You talk like you're seventy-six," Ino snapped, but there was a grin on her face all the same. "But you're right. Now get your ass on top of that pyramid."

* * *

Sakura found herself licking her lips as she surveyed the field.

The team was on defense, which meant that Sasuke was sidelined for the moment. He was 100% focused on the game, discussing strategy with Coach Gai and a few of the offensive linemen while Oto was in possession; there was something insanely attractive about a player who played with such narrow-minded intensity. He held his helmet under his arm, his dark eyes locked on play. She doubted he even knew she existed at the moment, and while some brand new, shiny girlfriends might find that to be offensive, Sakura loved him all the more for it.

This was Sasuke's night. His moment of redemption. But it wasn't going to be a blow-out victory like last time; the game was nearing the end of the first half, and Konoha and Oto were tied 17-17.

With fifteen seconds left, Naruto broke the line and sacked the quarterback while the ball was still in his hands. Sakura, Ino, and the other cheerleaders all exploded into raucous cheers of approval as Konoha snatched up the ball to secure possession; Sasuke jammed his helmet back on his head and ran back to the field with the rest of the offense.

"ALL RIGHT SASUKE, SCORE BEFORE THE BUZZER AND SAKURA WILL BANG YOU AT THE AFTERPARTY!" Ino shouted, her voice carrying even louder than the scream of the fans.

"Ino!" Sakura screamed, mortified, blushing all the way to the roots of her hair; hopefully, Sasuke hadn't heard that, even if _everyone_ in the Konoha stands did.

"Oh, come on, we both know you want to," Ino snickered. "Let's Go Gold, ladies!"

The offensive line quickly reset with Konoha now in possession thirty yards from the goal post. Sasuke shouted out a play (Sakura rarely, if ever, heard him raise his voice, so to hear the deep, rumbling bass bark out a command like that was _thrilling_) and the ball was hiked into his hands. Sakura screamed with excitement as he aimed directly at Kiba and fired the ball.

"AND IT'S INUZUKA WITH THE CATCH FROM QUARTERBACK UCHIHA!" bellowed the announcer, as all the Konoha fans jumped to their feet in joy and encouragement. "INUZUKA'S HEADING FOR THE GOALPOST! HE'S CROSSING THE THIRTY-YARD LINE, THE TWENTY, THE TEN…"

Sakura knew she should be watching Kiba the way everybody else was, but something didn't feel quite right about the whole situation. She suddenly had a very, very bad feeling.

Sakura had kept her eye on Zaku and Dosu the entire game, not wanting a repeat of last year's championship game. And her gut instinct proved to be right, when she saw both of them peel back from the rest of their team's pursuit of Kiba, heading directly for Sasuke, who wasn't looking.

Her eyes widened as she realized their intent, and she screamed, "SASUKE! SASUKE, LOOK OUT!"

He heard her scream and turned to her in confusion – what was she doing yelling at him during a game? – and apparently caught sight of Zaku and Dosu flying towards him in that same instant. Lightning fast reflexes kicked into high gear, and Sakura watched him slide quickly out of Dosu's way. Her moment of relief was short-lived, though, because Zaku anticipated Sasuke's feint to the side, and with as much force as he could muster, slammed into him. Both boys went flying, and the crowd _erupted_ into a chorus of boos.

"SASUKE!" Sakura shrieked, as he went down hard, Zaku sprawled on top of him.

"EJECTION!" shouted someone from the stands.

The referees blew their whistles like crazy, halting Kiba two feet from the end zone. Many people had missed the tackle and weren't sure why everyone else was booing Oto so viciously; those who had seen Zaku and Dosu make their vindictive attack on Sasuke were shouting, demanding their ejection from the game as the team trainer rushed onto the field, along with the coaches.

_I knew it!_ Sakura thought, throwing her pompoms to the ground. _I KNEW they'd try something like this again! Oh my God, Sasuke!_

She prepared to run onto the field with the rest of Sasuke's teammates, but Ino seized her arm to stop her.

"Don't!" she said sharply.

Sakura watched, tears of fear in her eyes, as Zaku was yanked off Sasuke and thrown out of the game by one of the referees; his coach immediately argued the call but Sakura couldn't care less, her attention exclusively on the quarterback now surrounded by his teammates. Her heart was pounding as she watched Sasuke stir, then pull himself slowly to his feet.

The crowd's rage transformed instantly into joyous applause as Sasuke walked, unassisted, off the field towards the team lockers.

"Well, folks," the announcer declared, "it seems as though Oto linebacker number 21, Zaku Abumi, has been thrown out of the game for unsportsmanlike conduct. Konoha quarterback Sasuke Uchiha making his way off the field now, looks like he's gonna be all right, as the buzzer goes off on the second quarter. Konoha will kick it off after halftime, stay tuned."

The very _second_ the whistle blew signifying the second quarter was over, Sakura yanked her arm out of Ino's grasp and sprinted towards the locker rooms.

* * *

Sasuke shrugged off the team trainer, the coaches, and all of his teammates as he stalked into the locker room.

He didn't want to see anyone at the moment. He was _entirely_ too furious.

With a shout of rage, he ripped his helmet from his head and threw it against the lockers across the room, hard enough to dent. The helmet clattered loudly to the floor and he slammed his fast against the wall.

_Fucking asshole,_ he thought, gritting his teeth as he pictured Zaku's stupid, smirking face.

He paused in his rampage to examine his face in the mirror above the sink. There was a nasty-looking cut running over his eye from where he'd hit his head on the way down and his throwing arm was killing him. It seemed that Abumi's goal was to take him out of the game by incapacitating his throwing arm.

There was no honor in that. There was no dignity in it, and not in a million years would Sasuke resort to such cheap, underhanded tactics. If it hadn't been for Sakura screaming at him to look out from the sidelines…

Now, he was angry for a whole new reason. Abumi had been ejected from the game, which was frustrating to him, because he'd wanted to beat the bastard himself, on the field, in person for the last time ever. There were college scouts at this game, too; if he couldn't pull it together, shelve the pain coursing through his arm until the game was over, his very future was on the line here.

With another snarl of anger, he snapped his attention away from his reflection in the mirror and sat down on the bench by the lockers, massaging his wounded arm with venom in his heart.

The door was thrown open then, and he looked around to glare at whoever dared to encroach on his solitary rampage, only to falter when he saw who it was.

"What are you doing here, Sakura?" he demanded, guilty at the terrified expression on her face. She _had_ warned him, hadn't she?

"Are you okay?" she deflected, rushing to him in a flurry of glitter and a long pink ponytail. She was sitting next to him in an instant, running her hands in a soothing motion over the length of his throwing arm.

"It's fine," he snapped, knowing he wasn't supposed to take his anger and frustration out on her, but unable to do anything else with it. What he wouldn't give for just two _minutes_ alone with Abumi…

"It's so not fine, Coach Gai's out there arguing like crazy to get Zaku and Dosu kicked out of school, it was so _blatant,_ Sasuke, it's not even funny."

"How'd you see that coming, anyway?" Sasuke muttered; Sakura's massage was working wonders on his sore muscles.

"I was watching him the whole game," she sniffed. "Somebody had to. I knew you wouldn't take me seriously. He could've _seriously_ hurt you tonight, Sasuke. Is it so terrible that I worry about you?"

"Worry about what I'm gonna do to _him_ after this game."

"Are you okay to play?" she pressed, clearly trying to cool his violent streak into something manageable. "Or d'you want me to have Coach Gai send in the second string QB?"

"No fucking _way,_ Sakura. I'm fine. Get outta here."

He didn't mean to be so rude to her, but she was an easy target. He appreciated her concern, but girls never seemed to understand that in moments of high-stress intensity, like a sports game, men needed nothing more than to be left alone. Not coddled.

Far from crumpling into hurt feelings, though, Sakura's eyes narrowed. Clearly he'd underestimated her temper.

"Don't be a dick to me," she snapped. "I'm _allowed_ to worry about you. Keep some ice on your arm till the third quarter."

With that, she stood up to leave him to stew in his own bitterness. But remembering what had occurred in a locker room between them a few weeks ago, Sasuke felt his anger ebb. With an almost reluctant grin, he reached out and caught her elbow, stopping her. She turned a frigid glare on him, but he ignored it.

"When we win," he said arrogantly, studying her hesitantly curious expression, "what do I get from you?"

She raised her eyebrows, then giggled.

"We'll cross _that_ bridge when we come to it," she promised. Then she reached into her pocket and removed a butterfly bandaid, tossing it to him on her way out. "Go get 'em, asshole."

* * *

There were thirty seconds left in his high school football career, and Konoha was trailing by one point.

Sai's last-minute touchdown put the score at 28-27, and Sasuke knew that Sai, the best field-goal kicker on their team, would get the extra point for sure. Forcing overtime.

He had a better idea.

"TIME!" he shouted, and his teammates immediately huddled around him on the field to discuss their next – and final – move in Konoha uniforms.

Sasuke wasn't one for big motivational speeches or too many words, but with his last act as captain, he knew he couldn't afford to lose anything in translation.

He was tired. He was hurting. They had to end this now – and go out like heroes.

"This is it," he said flatly, breathing heavily; they all were. It had been a rough, long, and dirty game. "We're gonna go for the two-point conversion."

"You sure about that, man?" asked Chouji, covered in sweat from head to toe, his round face worried. "If we fuck it up, that's it."

"They'll expect us to take the field goal and force overtime," Sasuke said decisively. "This is our chance to _win._"

Naruto, who typically disagreed with Sasuke just for recreation, pumped his fist in the air. "HELL YEAH!" he shouted. "All right, Sasuke, what's the play?"

He smirked. Once you secured Naruto as an ally, you were as good as gold.

"Fake pass to Kiba," Sasuke replied firmly. "Naruto, you cover my right. I'm gonna run this shit in."

"Bastard's in a hurry," Naruto stage-whispered to the rest of the guys. "I would be, too, if Sakura was gonna bang _me_ at Ino's afterparty tonight!"

Sasuke sucked in air sharply through his teeth, but promised himself he'd beat on Naruto later for saying something like that. Now was not the time to be anything but 100% focused on and committed to the game. This was it. His last play in his last game as Konoha High School's starting quarterback, and with everyone watching – with _her_ watching – there was no way he was going to let them lose.

He was going to run that ball in, or die trying.

"This is it," he reiterated, addressing the seniors on the line. "One last shot."

"YOU HEARD HIM!" Naruto bellowed joyously. "THIS IS IT! LET'S DO IT!"

All the other guys let out cheers and shouts of eagerness as they reset the line. Sasuke couldn't keep the smirk off his face when Oto realized they had no intention of kicking in the extra point.

A two-point conversion was a risk. If the pass wasn't complete, or if he wasn't successful at running the ball in himself, then it would be an automatic Oto victory. But if they succeeded, then they would win the game outright, without having to play any overtime.

And he had a party to get to.

Sparing a quick glance at the cheerleaders – he _never_ thought he'd be the kind of guy to pay so much attention to a girl in a pleated skirt – he smirked against the racing of his heart and called out the last play of his high school football career.

Exhausted. Heated. Burned out. Injured. He ignored it all.

"BLUE 42, BLUE 42," he shouted. "Set…_hike!_"

The ball was snapped into his hands. Instantly, Oto's defense charged at him, pushing all they had into one last shield; Naruto and the others blocked every single one of them as Sasuke faked a pass to Kiba, the wide receiver.

It fooled enough of Oto's players to pull some of the attention away from him. Urging energy to his exhausted legs, he let out a shout of effort and sprinted towards the endzone himself, football tucked securely under his arm.

Naruto, the best defender on the team, ran right alongside him, a human shield to protect the quarterback and Konoha's last chance at a championship victory. A perfect team.

Together, no one could _touch_ them.

And with untold amounts of exhilaration, Sasuke's foot crossed the line at the endzone with two seconds to spare.

The next thing he knew, the buzzers went off to signal the end of the game, and he was rushed by every single member of his team.

There was too much noise to hear _anything_ clearly, but he could kind of make out the jubilant cheers and whoops of joy as he was tackled for the second time that evening, this time by his own teammates. Coach Gai and his assistant coaches raced onto the field as well, screaming with everyone else as the Konoha fans _exploded_.

"WE DID IT, MAN!" yelled Naruto, clapping Sasuke roughly on the back. "WE DID IT! WE'RE DIVISION _CHAMPIONS!_"

Sasuke's smirk couldn't be shaken off. There was nothing like this in the _world,_ no feeling that equaled it. He'd done it; he'd helped take his team all the way, unseeding an incumbent Oto as division champions and taking back the glory for their school. This was how he would be remembered at Konoha High School: as the hero who'd led them all to victory. The proud Uchiha legacy would continue, thanks to him.

He didn't protest as he was ripped off the ground and lifted into the air by his raucous teammates, paraded around as their fans went crazy with excitement. He made out Kakashi and Iruka in the stands, both of them waving a sign with his name on it frantically; even Iruka looked happy about the way things had turned out. Their classmates screamed and shrieked and hollered with joy from the bleachers, the cheerleaders were backflipping and cartwheeling and…

And one broke away from the rest of them and sprinted up to him, her pink ponytail streaking behind her, her brilliant white smile a mile wide.

Sasuke's smirk evolved into a grin as he jumped down from his teammates' shoulders, took two long, swift strides towards the prettiest girl in school, and without any further ado, he grabbed her by the back of her neck, pulled her in, and kissed her right there in front of everyone.

There would be time to consider the consequences of his actions – the consequences of kissing Sakura Haruno publicly, in front of the entire school and, even more terrifyingly, in front of her _fathers_ – later. But for now, he decided to throw caution to the wind, and ride out this peerless high for as long as it lasted.

He was the football hero now; as far as kissing the hot cheerleader went, he figured he pretty much earned the right.

* * *

**note..** heyhihello, y'all. figured i kept you waiting enough on this one :) about halfway through and having a good time with this again.

also: came across this term while i was reading: "mpreg." what the hell does that mean? you guys must remember that i am like an eight-year-old when it comes to the ffnet vernacular. i understand it to mean "male pregnancy." but that can't be right, can it? i don't even fucking know. so if someone could educate me, that'd be delightful.

anyway, if you liked this one, let me know :) have fun this weekend.

xoxo Daisy


	14. Beautiful Eyes

Beautiful Eyes

It didn't occur to Sakura that Sasuke was kissing her until the crowd response reached her ears.

She was already high on the knowledge that they'd defeated Oto High in a last-minute, buzzer-beater, magic movie moment, and she now had the singularly unique privilege of being the girlfriend of the high school hero. Their last high school football game, ever, and Sasuke's quick thinking and athleticism made it one for the history books. The audience went _crazy._

But if she thought they were loud _before,_ she wondered how her eardrums were still in tact when they saw Sasuke grab her and kiss her without any further ado.

There was nothing – _nothing_ – like this moment. She wanted to freeze it in time, memorize every single thing about it, from the roar of the crowd and the cheering of the other cheerleaders and the catcalls and whistles and whoops from Sasuke's teammates, to the way his skin smelled like soap and spices, to the delicious iron grip of his hand on her waist. It was _magic,_ there was no better word to describe it. Just magic.

She could feel his self-satisfied smirk against her lips. What could _ever_ be better than that?

"GET A ROOM!" she heard Naruto shout, followed by laughter as she was jostled this way and that by the football players scrambling to congratulate Sasuke, even if he was a bit busy. Still he held onto her, and when he broke the kiss and she looked up at him, eyes shining, breathless with happiness, she fell _completely_ in love with him.

His silver-black eyes were _gorgeous_ with the floodlights shining in them, conveying every single emotion he was feeling at the time: excited, exhilarated, exhausted, _happy._ And he didn't seem to _care_ that he'd kissed her in front of every single person in the audience, even her dads; in the bleachers, she could faintly hear Iruka screaming obscenities at anyone who would listen, but she would deal with that later.

"You were _amazing,_" she croaked out, her voice all but disappeared after so much screaming, followed by so much kissing. Her hands gripped his grass-stained jersey to punctuate her remark. "You _did it!_"

Sasuke opened his mouth to say something, but Naruto interrupted, rushing between them like a hurricane and seizing Sakura up in a giant hug.

"We did it, Sakura!" he crowed, and he was so deliriously giddy that she didn't have the heart to shake him off. Instead, she laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck, allowing him to spin her around in a circle while Sasuke pouted behind her. "_WE DID IT!_"

After that, everything was a blur. Sakura realized she couldn't monopolize Sasuke, to whom everyone was rushing with their congratulations, everyone from students to newspaper reporters to _college scouts,_ not to mention she had her own crew to celebrate with. This was _her_ special night, too.

"I'll see you at Ino's tonight!" she shouted over Chouji's shoulder, not quite sure if Sasuke heard her around the horde of people that converged on him. With a giggle, she sprinted back to her squad, who were still turning cartwheels and aerials with joy, and hurled herself at Ino, sending both of them catapulting to the grass.

"FOREHEAD!" Ino squealed. "You'll get grass stains on my _skirt!_"

But Sakura only laughed and hugged her best friend, who gave in and hugged her back.

A perfect, _perfect_ night.

…

"I th-think I'm gonna t-t-tell N-Naruto tonight," Hinata said quietly, in the car on the way to Ino's party.

Sakura's eyes widened as she whirled around to face her friend sitting in the backseat, staring at her fingers. Ino nearly crashed the car.

"WHAT?" bellowed the blonde.

"Hinata are you serious?!" Sakura squealed, bowled over by the news and overjoyed at the same time. "You're gonna tell Naruto you like him? What brought _this_ on?"

"About a hundred years of waiting," Ino quipped.

"Shut _up,_ hogulous."

"I just…t-tonight was so p-perfect," Hinata explained, her skin flushing red as she hid behind her long black hair. "And it f-f-feels right. And at l-least if he d-d-doesn't feel the s-same way…"

"He does," Ino interjected.

"…then I g-gave it all I h-h-had."

"HINATA!" shrieked Sakura, giddy with excitement for her friend.

"Plus…you and S-Sasuke inspired m-me," she added shyly.

"Me and Sasuke? How?"

"He's usually s-so s-serious. But tonight…t-tonight was perfect and he knew that and…and he k-kissed you without c-caring what anyone th-th-thought."

Remembering Sasuke's lips on hers, his fingers tugging her hair while everybody watched, made Sakura burn all over again.

"I need that k-kind of bravery."

Sakura was touched by Hinata's honesty, but Ino, pulling into her own driveway, was annoyed by it.

"So let's get this straight," she snapped. "I've been trying for years – _actually years_ – to give you and that dumbass the hook-up. And really, all the push you needed all along was seeing Sasuke and Sakura make out in front of the entire city like exhibitionists? Unbelievable. _Unbelievable._"

But all three girls were laughing as they rushed inside to get everything ready for the afterparty.

…

Every year, at the end of football season, Ino Yamanaka hosted an afterparty following the last game of the year. And every year, more and more people showed up, and this year, their numbers skyrocketed. Everyone was so excited about winning the championship game; Sakura couldn't blame them for wanting to celebrate at the most densely-populated party of the night.

But weaving through thirty girls just to grab hold of her boyfriend was proving to be annoying.

When she finally reached him, a red plastic cup of jungle juice in his hand and an irritated expression on his face, she latched onto his bicep to get his attention. Annoyed, he looked down, but when he realized it was her, his annoyance melted into a smirk.

"You're a pain in the ass to find!" Sakura yelled over the blast of the music. She had no idea how Ino avoided the police every year at these parties, what with the loud music, underage drinking, and general revelry of a bunch of fearless teenagers.

"Should've driven over with me instead," he replied, somehow his deep voice carrying over the noise.

"Whatever, give me some," she giggled, making a grab for his jungle juice. She got the sense that if they weren't dating, he wouldn't have shared, but he settled for giving her a bored glare as she tipped the scalding liquid into her mouth. Immediately, her eyes watered; whatever was in that was _strong._

But she would need some liquid courage for what she had planned tonight.

Sex wasn't something new to her. She'd lost her virginity at 15 to Kiba and was more than comfortable in her own skin, at least with him. With Kiba, she'd known that she was an excellent bed partner, but maybe her skill had been overexaggerated? She'd never slept with anyone else, so she had nothing to compare it to.

Maybe taking it to the next level with Sasuke would be a disaster. Maybe he would think that she was so bad, so unattractive, that he would break up with her the next morning.

_Stop it, Sakura,_ she thought fiercely, taking another sip of jungle juice as Sasuke led her away from the crowd in the kitchen back outside, where it wasn't so packed. _Clearly he finds you attractive. If Dad hadn't interrupted the other night, at Homecoming…we probably would've done it there. There's no question he's not willing._

It was terrifying, though. Even for someone as experienced as she was, the concept terrified her. Approaching Sasuke openly with her intentions. Even if they were dating, even if he'd copped to being in love with her – something she still couldn't quite believe – she still opened herself up for rejection, and after enduring a _childhood_ of rejection from Sasuke, she didn't know if she could handle anymore.

"Slow down," Sasuke chuckled, taking the cup back from her, when they were reasonably isolated, concealed behind the rose bush Ino's mother was so proud of. The cold nipped at her ears, but she'd dressed appropriately for the weather: skinny jeans and a gray peacoat and high-heeled boots to brought her to Sasuke's chin.

"I think I deserve to be drunk tonight," she giggled.

"Aa." Then, the warm, carefree look in his eyes ignited into something _else,_ and Sakura instantly felt a fire in her stomach as he pressed his hips against hers. "But I need you sober for what I want to do tonight."

Any doubts Sakura had suddenly went catapulting out the window.

* * *

On second thought, in the garden behind the rosebush was not the best place for what he had in mind.

Once he admitted (in a roundabout way) what he planned to do with Sakura that evening, she'd responded with an immediate, scorching kiss that nearly knocked him off his feet. He felt drunk, even after one cup of jungle juice, inebriated on this smoldering connection.

They needed to get inside somewhere. Immediately. Somewhere warm. With a bed.

He wasn't sure what made this night _the_ night, besides the fact that it was already perfect, and this was the only thing that could make it better. But he'd been waiting for _years_ to touch Sakura and simmering the entire time; he couldn't hold out much longer, and he had the feeling that she felt the same.

She was certainly _kissing_ him like she wanted to sleep with him.

When she tugged on his hair hard enough to hurt (set him on fire), he pulled back to stare into her glassy eyes. "Let's get out of here," he breathed into her ear, and he nearly shivered at the way she licked her lips in response. "My place."

In the heat of the moment, he'd had no qualms kissing Sakura in front of the world. But no amount of adrenaline could justify banging her in Ino's garden during the biggest party of the year.

"Come on, hurry up," she hissed.

Sasuke didn't live far from Ino, thank God, because he wasn't sure how he and Sakura made it home without mauling each other.

His apartment always felt so empty. He was lucky to be able to live on his own since he turned 16 – it was usually unheard of for a minor to have their own living space – and now, for once, he was glad for the fact that no one else was there to bother him.

He didn't remember making it inside, had no idea how he unlocked the door, but somehow, he found himself in his living room with Sakura shedding her coat and kissing him at the same time.

Now, Sasuke Uchiha wasn't normally _nervous_ about _anything._ But for once in his life, he found himself feeling anxious about what was to come next.

Not that it wouldn't be awesome – he had no doubts that he would remember this night for the rest of his life – but rather, Sakura's expectations of him would be too high. This wasn't _her_ first time; she'd been having sex for over a year already. What if she expected fireworks from him, and he fell short?

"Sasuke," she breathed against his lips, jamming her hips against his and he felt himself harden like _lightning._

His anxiety flew out the window. He'd been waiting _years_ for this to happen, and now it was happening. The best night of his life was about to get even better, and from here on out, instinct guided his every move. When he threw her unceremoniously onto the couch and attacked her collarbone with open-mouthed kisses, she showed absolutely no sign of displeasure.

"I want you so _bad,_ Sasuke," Sakura whispered.

After hearing that, he had her shirt off in _seconds;_ his was quick to follow, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, bringing him as close as possible, the feel of her exposed skin pressed against his a little more than an accelerant on the wildfire in his chest.

"Jesus, Sakura," he snarled, the muscles in his biceps trembling, his body _demanding_ to have her. His fingers flew to the button and zipper on her jeans, and despite never having removed a woman's jeans before, he proved to have yet another quantifiable skill as they flew off her, and long, smooth, satiny legs wrapped like vises around his waist.

"Is there _anything_ you're bad at?" Sakura gasped, and he smirked, enjoying the stroke to his masculine ego nearly as much as the sight of raspberry-colored, semi-sheer lace panties and a matching bra, the only things that concealed Sakura Haruno from him.

"D'you have a condom?" she asked, her voice raspy from all that screaming earlier. It was _impossibly _sexy.

"Aa," he murmured back, sliding his hand all the way up her shirt. Things were heating up, sure, but that was no excuse to be irresponsible. He and Sakura were entirely too smart and had entirely too much going for them to risk unprotected sex right now. His free hand slipped to his wallet in his back pocket. With some maneuvering, and still not pulling his lips away from Sakura's neck, he extracted a tiny gold square package.

He did _not_ expect Sakura to snatch it from him and tear the wrapping with her teeth, all while keeping eye contact with him so he couldn't misinterpret her dirty intentions. Sasuke let out a ragged groan at the sight, of beautiful, _gorgeous_ Sakura Haruno, the school sweetheart, tearing open a condom with her teeth, the condom she intended him to use on her.

"_Shit,_" he growled, about the only thing he was capable of saying as the reality of what was about to happen sunk in.

This time, there would _be_ no interruptions. This time, they wouldn't have to deal with Naruto killing the moment, or Ino, or any interference from Sakura's fathers. It was just the two of them, alone in the dark in his empty apartment, silent except for Sakura's breathy little gasps and moans and his own guttural snarls.

"You're sure?" he asked quietly, one final reassurance needed before he satisfied years of longing.

"_Yes,_ Sasuke," she whispered, and he vowed to hear her say that again, he vowed to make her _scream_ it. Yes, this was his first time, but Sakura was right: there _wasn't_ anything he was bad at.

When her hands dropped to his belt, he felt his mind go completely blank.

…

She slept soundly when it was over, with a smile on her face.

Her body was slick with sweat, and she'd scrambled back into her bra and panties but claimed not to have the energy to get all the way dressed. (He took immense satisfaction out of that, having worn her out so completely.) Her hair was a mess, spilled over the arm of his couch and tickling his chest where he lay beside her, her skin flushed.

She was the most beautiful thing in the universe.

His back ached a little, from the scrape of her blunt nails running down his spine and over his ribs. He felt like he'd just played a doubleheader, with his muscles liquified and not even enough strength left to move, but it was an exhaustion he'd never felt before. The kind of exhaustion a boy feels when he gets _everything_ he ever wanted, all in one night.

She'd been a feisty little wildcat the entire time. He'd always suspected that her temperament might transfer to the mattress, along with her inherent flexibility, but seeing it in action for himself had him going _crazy_ about her.

He'd done it. He'd slept with Sakura Haruno.

His fingers traced the smooth curvature of her jaw as she slept, and she giggled a little in her sleep before tucking her head into the crook of his neck.

It was such a cliché. The quarterback and the head cheerleader. That story had been told a thousand times before, in a thousand different ways, but never before had history heard the story of Sasuke and Sakura. They were different, they were an _exception_ to the common law; theirs was a story that would take many, many years to complete and he _loved_ that about her, how she could take every stereotype and turn it on its head. How she always kept him guessing, how this was just the _beginning._

"You should sleep, S'suke," she murmured, and he glanced down at her to see her beautiful eyes half-open, the smile on her lips unshakable as she pressed a lazy kiss to his jaw.

Green eyes that had mesmerized him since forever, confused him since middle school, and _entranced_ him since freshman year, were now locked on him, sleepy and full of fearless love. He'd never felt so much love before, not until that instant, and it wasn't his way, to put into words how he was feeling, but he hoped she got the message from the way he kissed her forehead.

"Annoying," he breathed fondly.

Her sleepy giggle, and the way her fingers slid through his, had him falling asleep with a smirk on his face.

(Closer, than anything, to a smile.)

END PART ONE

* * *

**note..** hey y'all :) just figured, in honor of sakura's birthday today, i'd give her something she'd never want to take back to the store.

halfway done :)

xoxo Daisy


	15. I'm Only Me When I'm With You

I'm Only Me When I'm With You

The smirk on Sasuke's face said it all as she opened the front door for him.

"Hey!" she said breathlessly, then her eyes dropped to the envelope in his hand. It took her a moment to process what this impromptu visit was about – not that he ever needed a reason to drop by and see her, not really – before she registered the envelope's significance and her eyes went wide.

"No _way!_" she squealed, snatching it out of his hand. Sure enough, the large gold Konoha University crest emblazoned on the top of the cream-colored letter revealed its origin, and she only had to read the words: Dear, Mr., Uchiha, and Congratulations before she vaulted herself into Sasuke's arms.

"YOU DID IT!" Sakura screeched, deliriously happy.

She had been the first to hear back from Konoha University, and that had been before Homecoming. As a prospective med student and on a special track, she'd gained early admission to her first choice school, and would be getting a free ride if she maintained her grades through to graduation. She was so excited for herself, but she was _overjoyed_ to hear what she'd known all along: that Sasuke had gotten into KU as well, and would be joining her next fall.

"Was there ever a doubt?" he quipped, clearly amused by her reaction as she kissed him long and hard on the lips. "Easy, woman."

"If only my dads weren't home," she breathed hotly against his lips, rewarded with the sight of his slow, suggestive smirk as his fingers dug hard into her hips. "Then I'd take you upstairs and…"

"_And what, exactly?"_ snarled the menacing voice of Iruka, appearing out of nowhere at her shoulder.

"…help with her chemistry homework," Sasuke finished, unable to control his smug smirk.

"Dad, Sasuke got into KU!" Sakura exclaimed, waving her boyfriend's acceptance letter. "Early admission, same as me! Isn't that great?"

"Fabulous," Iruka grumbled, just as Kakashi swept onto the scene, much more excited than his husband seemed to be.

"Fabulous!" he cried. "Good job, Sasuke, always knew you had it in you!" And Sasuke was promptly yanked from Sakura's grasp and tugged into a hug with her daddy. "Come on in, kiddo, it's freezing out there, our little girl's got no manners sometimes."

…

Sometimes Sakura wondered if it was okay to be this happy.

It felt like she was getting everything she ever wanted, all at once. The boy she'd loved since practically forever was now dating her exclusively, set to attend the same college as her next year, and everything was just going _well._ They didn't have to sacrifice their friendship to make their relationship work. Instead, it flowed like it was the most natural thing in the world. Effortless.

Now, she found herself Christmas tree shopping, of all things, with Sasuke, her mittened hand wrapped warmly around his bare one, unable to find anything in the world to complain about.

"I don't get why you want to do this," he grumbled from beside her, but not even his well-rehearsed dissatisfaction with everything could ruffle her feathers right now. "It's not like it matters."

"Sasuke, you have an ethical responsibility to have a Christmas tree at Christmastime. We've been over this."

"They're a pain in the ass."

"That's why I'm here to help."

"I don't have a place for it."

"Yes you do, we just need to move your couch out a ways."

"I don't have any ornaments."

"_Sasuke._ Look, in case you haven't realized, I'm _really happy._ And I'd like to stay that way so can you please take your Grinch attitude and pull that bah humbug out of your ass and enjoy this with me?"

Sasuke smirked. "Did you just say that?"

She giggled. "Yup. Now suck it up and let's get the biggest tree they've got."

Without warning, he tugged her into his side long enough to mutter filthily in her ear, "You like everything as big as they come, don't you?"

She blushed to the roots of her hair, hidden by her winter beanie, and elbowed him in the side. "Creep."

Then she kissed him, just because she could. Because there was a long time when kissing him was little more than a pipe dream, when he'd seemed so far away from her, when she was dating someone else and thoughts of him were shoved to the back her mind. Now that she was allowed to do it, it was difficult to stop. There was simply so much time to make up for.

"I like you," she confided.

Sasuke smiled – an actual smile, one that made her heart _sing_ – and gestured down one of the walkways of the crowded tree farm.

"C'mon. Let's just pick one and get home already."

Okay, so at sixteen years old, not even out of high school yet, and by her own admission, painfully naïve about the world, Sakura knew that to even think of living with Sasuke was incredibly premature. But the part of her that liked to ignore reality every now and then, and pretend, _loved_ the idea of _his_ home being _their_ home. She spent a good chunk of time at his apartment, and he'd even set aside a drawer in his dresser for her things.

Granted, they could only ever take advantage of his solo apartment status for sleepovers whenever Iruka was out of town on business, or she could convince her dads that she was staying at a girlfriend's house, but still. Sakura found herself dreaming of what would happen after college, if they were still together. And how nice an apartment of their own would be.

In the meantime, though, she would make sure that Sasuke's place was as warm and homey as she could make it. Especially around Christmastime, because now that he had her, she was determined that he never spend another Christmas alone again.

"What about this one?" she asked with a bright, beautiful smile, gesturing towards a sizable pine tree.

"Looks good to me," he replied, but he never took his eyes off her. And God, would she _ever_ get tired of that look in his eyes?

_I've done it,_ she thought, as Sasuke paid for the tree from the farm attendant and hoisted it over his shoulder. _I've officially become that sappy, lovesick Disney princess I always feared becoming._

_And fuck it, because I'm happy._

After Christmas tree shopping and before heading back to Sasuke's to set it up, they decided to stop at the Bean to get some coffee. (Sakura mentioned that with them having a sleepover that night, she would need something to keep her awake; Sasuke had nearly crashed the car pulling into the parking lot.)

They headed inside to the warmth of the coffee bar and Sakura removed her hat and mittens while they got in line. But no sooner had she done that than she heard a masculine voice clear his throat from the spot in front of her.

"Oh. Sakura. Uh, hey."

She blinked and looked up to see Kiba standing in line, a tint of red to his cheeks that had to be from the cold outside.

They hadn't really spoken – at all – since their break-up. She'd been so angry and so hurt, and it had been difficult to try and be friends again after everything that had happened. But now, seeing him didn't hurt so badly, and she guessed there was a really good reason for that:

She'd moved on.

With that in mind, she chanced a smile.

"Hey, Kiba. How are you?"

"Good, good. You look…um. Hey, man, what's up," he added to Sasuke, as if suddenly aware that he was there.

Sasuke's expression was neutral as he accepted Kiba's dap. To Sakura's knowledge, their friendship had suffered after the whole break-up, and this could potentially be awkward, having her old boyfriend and her new one, both of them once friends in their own right, confront each other with her involved.

"You drink coffee now?" she said with a teasing smile, remembering his revulsion with the hot, steamy liquid she couldn't live without. He wouldn't even kiss her if she drank it without taking a breathmint afterwards. "That's a switch!"

He chuckled and scratched the back of his neck. He was clearly nervous, and she disliked that.

"Well, uh, it's not really for me, it's more for…"

"Kiba they're out of caramel, that's so _lame,_ how can a _coffee shop_ be out of _caramel, _and…oh."

The uncomfortable trio was infiltrated, then, by none other than Ami Watanabe. Sakura felt her stomach muscles clench and her heartrate pick up as she laid eyes on her personal bully; years of honed dislike boiled up inside her, and she felt her expression go cold.

Ami sized her up with narrowed eyes, her gaze flickering between Sakura and Sasuke before she slid her arm through Kiba's.

"Hey, Sasuke," she said, ignoring Sakura's existence completely.

"Hn."

"So you guys are dating now?" Sakura asked, keeping her voice carefully neutral, even as her blood pounded hot through her veins.

"For months," Ami replied viciously, but Sakura knew better than to rise to the bait.

"It's kinda new," Kiba chimed in awkwardly, contradicting Ami's statement. He looked embarrassed now, and Sakura was spitefully glad for that. Last time they'd spoken, Ami had been 'nothing' and 'just a mistake' and 'not as good as you'. Now, he was officially seeing her.

She was _pissed._

"Well…uh…we're gonna get going," he said nervously. "Since they, uh, don't have caramel or whatever. It was good seeing you guys, though."

"You, too," Sakura ground out; Sasuke said nothing from beside her.

Ami gave a simpering sweet smile and let Kiba pull her out of the coffee shop, sparing Sakura one last withering glare before they left.

"They're _dating,_" Sakura snapped. "Can you _believe_ that?"

Sasuke didn't answer; in fact, he looked kind of pissed, which pleased her, because she was pissed, too.

How _dare_ Kiba make his relationship with Ami _official?_

Ami had deliberately interfered in her relationship with Kiba. She'd known that Kiba had a girlfriend, and hooked up with him anyway. She'd never once even apologized to Sakura for what she'd done, and now, on top of everything, she was officially dating him like they hadn't committed some grievous sin against Sakura?

It wasn't fair.

And it wasn't that she wanted Kiba for herself, either. That part of her life was over, and she was better for it. Now she was with someone she'd loved since forever, and Sasuke, for all of his flaws, would _never_ do to her what Kiba had done.

She wouldn't even be angry if Kiba was dating anybody else. She didn't want him, nor did she want him to be alone. She would be happy to know he was seeing a nice girl; yes, he'd hurt her and no, things couldn't be the same for them anymore, but she still cared about him, and she'd loved him once. She wanted him to be happy.

But she did _not_ want him to be happy with _Ami._ Ami did not deserve Kiba, or anybody else for that matter; she was mean, self-serving, sometimes even _cruel,_ and after the shit she had pulled, she shouldn't be allowed to get away with what they'd done.

"Guess there's no accounting for taste," she sniffed, as the barista at the front counter called out 'Next!' "Oh, whatever. What flavor do you want, Sasuke? I'm buying tonight."

"Nothing," he said, his tone somewhat frosty. His hand slid from hers, both of them shoved into the pockets of his jacket. "Just hurry up."

She frowned. _What's THAT about?_ she thought, turning away from him to place her order.

He was probably just tired, she reasoned. Nothing a little late night makeout wouldn't fix. Good mood restored.

* * *

"…you're mad at me."

Sasuke glared at her from the sofa, not wanting to deal with this.

"Hn."

"Are you gonna tell me why?"

Did she really have to ask?

Did he not just _stand there,_ like a fucking _chump,_ while she threw a tantrum over her ex-boyfriend?

If she was that jealous of Kiba's hook-up with the girl Sakura hated, why the hell had she dumped him in the first place? Moreover, why the hell was she dating _him_, if _Kiba_ was the one she really wanted to be with?

"C'mon, this was such a good day," Sakura implored, climbing down from the ladder with the Christmas star still in her hands. "And I can't hang the Christmas star if you're mad at me, so what's up?"

Her guiltless expression rankled his nerves.

"Is this about what happened in the coffee shop?" she guessed.

Bingo, Sakura.

"Because if you thought for one _second_ that I'm upset about Kiba having a new girlfriend," she went on, "then you're the wrongest you've ever been wrong."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow – was his jealousy really that obvious? Not to mention, Sakura looked perfectly unperturbed by the conversation, not even one iota guilty or uncomfortable. If anything, her expression told him nothing but truth.

"Hn."

"I just hate _her,_ Sasuke. Not the fact that Kiba's got a girlfriend. I'm over him. I've _been_ over him. For awhile. Even before you and I got together. So you don't have anything to worry about, or anything to get mad at me for. My problem's with Ami. I can't stand her."

Sasuke wasn't sure why Sakura was so angry with Ami if she wasn't angry with Kiba anymore, but maybe it was some stupid girl thing he couldn't understand. Girls were notorious with their double standards. Maybe Sakura could forgive Kiba the entire cheating fiasco, but she was unable to forgive Ami for the same thing.

Either way, she'd said the magic words. 'I'm over him.'

Maybe he was being unreasonable.

Sakura smiled, and two seconds later she was straddling his waist, her hands splayed across the muscles in his abdomen, the Christmas star forgotten on the floor. Long pink hair tickled his face as she bent over him, whispering, "Were you _jealous,_ Sasuke?"

"No way," he lied, trying his best to ignore the way he could feel her heat through his jeans.

"I don't know, it sure looked that way. I mean you even _sulked._ That's not like you, Sasuke."

She rolled her hips meaningfully into his groin, and he felt familiar electricity rocket up and down his spine. Little bitch.

"You're lucky you're pretty, you know that?" he snapped, his hands locking around her waist to keep her steady.

It wasn't like he didn't have cause for concern, he told himself, as Sakura dipped her head and kissed him. She'd dated Kiba for an entire _year_ before they'd gotten together, and Sasuke knew for a _fact_ that if Sakura said the word, Kiba would take her back in an instant. He'd been there at the coffee bar that night, too, and even if Sakura was woefully ignorant to her own aesthetic appeal, he'd read the attraction loud and clear in Kiba's body.

But what made Sakura so fucking _awesome_ was that she wanted _him._ Sasuke. He could see it in every smile she threw his way, every time her eyes went shiny, every kiss she planted with agonizing love to his lips. He felt perfectly comfortable resenting Kiba for the rest of his life, but he had to give Sakura some credit. She'd made it pretty clear how she felt for Sasuke.

The Christmas tree went neglected until the next day. Sasuke found himself otherwise engaged.

* * *

Ami laid on her back in Kiba's bed, dark eyes smoldering and glaring at the ceiling overhead.

Kiba was sleeping, the way he always did after they were done. Would it kill him to cuddle for a little while? She usually ended the night feeling cheap, when he would plant one last kiss on her lips, then roll the other way and fall asleep.

Seeing Sakura with Sasuke earlier hadn't helped her bad mood, either.

She wasn't stupid. She knew that even though Kiba hooked up with her while he was seeing Sakura, that he'd always preferred her. If she said the word, Ami knew Kiba would dump her ass like yesterday's garbage.

And Ami, beautiful and popular and self-assured, despised the fact that every guy she'd ever been interested in seemed to prefer her lifelong enemy.

Her crush on Sasuke throughout primary school – silly and shallow, she would admit – was a prime example. He'd rejected her every single advance, every single time, right up through high school, without even looking at her twice. She was entirely convinced he didn't even know her name, and it wasn't for her lack of trying.

And Sakura, with practically no effort at _all,_ swooped in and snatched him away, and now they were the most sickeningly perfect couple on campus.

Not to mention _Kiba._ Yes, he'd cheated on her and subsequently torpedoed their relationship, but she knew from the bottom of her heart that he still had feelings for Sakura, and that those feelings were much stronger than the ones he held for her.

And it wasn't _fair._

Even his _bedroom_ still smacked of Sakura. There were pictures of Kiba and her strewn here and there, like they were still dating; when Ami complained, Kiba had assured her he just hadn't had time to clean them up. There was a perfume bottle, half-full, on the dresser, the same brand she'd smelled Sakura using in the locker room at cheerleading. A few pairs of panties and a couple of bras too small to belong to Ami; Kiba said they were his sister's, but Ami knew better.

He wasn't in any hurry to erase her from his life, even months after they'd broken up.

_Maybe he's STILL seeing her,_ she thought, eyes narrowing in suspicion. _Maybe this is how she's getting her revenge on me for banging him while they were dating, doing the same thing to me!_

She didn't like the shrewish, suspicious harpy she was turning into, but now that she'd conjured the idea, she couldn't banish it. Not without some serious evidence that Sakura was really with Sasuke, and Kiba hadn't been contacting her all this time.

She glanced on the dresser next to Kiba's bed, where his cell phone was plugged in the wall to charge overnight. Only one way to find out…

Careful not to rouse him, she plucked his phone off the stand, entered his password (his birthday), and hungrily scrolled through his messages.

There were no texts to any girls except her, his mother, and his sister for the past several weeks. Ami was surprised, but pleased; it would seem that, at least for now, Kiba had cleaned up his act and was a one-woman kind of guy.

Unless, of course, he'd deleted any incriminating texts beforehand, but Ami chose to believe that he'd gone straight.

Out of pure curiosity, she clicked on his Pictures album. If he still had pictures of Sakura on his phone the way he did all over his walls, she would be furious. Not having enough time to clean his room out was one thing, but it only took a quick thumb gesture to delete a picture.

To her pleasure, though, there was no pink in any of the pictures. Most of them were of his dog, different shots of him playing football with the other guys, the typical weird things guys usually took pictures of. There were even a few of Ami and him together, which made her smile.

Maybe she was wrong about Kiba.

Maybe, because of what they'd done together while Sakura was still in the picture, she was overly paranoid.

She sighed contentedly, determined to put this whole encounter out of her mind. Sakura was gone. She had Kiba all to herself now. Things were going well.

She was just about to set the phone down and go to sleep when she finally saw a picture of pink.

Her eyes widened as she clicked on the picture, then narrowed. It was of Sakura all right, and the pose she struck was shocking. She was completely topless, her breasts barely covered by her strategically-placed long hair, and she only wore a pair of thin cranberry-laced panties, her thumbs hooked in the sides as if to pull them down. Green eyes were locked in a sultry, seductive gaze directed towards the camera.

Ami's lips curled into a snarl. _SAKURA sent Kiba a SEXYPIC? From WHEN?_

Her anger cooled somewhat when she saw the date the picture was received: way back in January, while Sakura was still dating Kiba and way before Ami had hooked up with him. Okay, so maybe Sakura wasn't seeing him anymore, but he'd hung onto this picture of her, hadn't he?

_Bitch,_ she thought, hating Sakura for the hundredth time, from the depths of her soul. Purely for evidence, she sent the picture from Kiba's phone to hers, and it was only after she plugged Kiba's phone back into the wall that she happened upon an idea.

_Payback,_ she thought, a wicked smile stretching her features. _For Kiba, for Sasuke, for Homecoming, for every single year that bitch ruined my life…_ She smirked at the topless photo of Sakura and saved it to her phone for future use.

_Looks like perfect little Sakura isn't so perfect after all._

* * *

**note..** i had a sexy pic scandal myself back when i was young and dumb in high school. sent the wrong kind of picture to the wrong kind of guy, and he forwarded it to his asshole friends after we broke up, with help from his new girlfriend, because girls are dirty like that. and how i handled it was, i laughed it off and pointed out how hot the picture was in a joking kind of way. so because i didn't give it any power, he ended up looking like the asshole, and i learned a valuable lesson in sexy pic etiquette: only give that shit to your husband lolz.

so yeah, this kind of shit actually happens. just make sure you really trust the person you're sending them shits to, so you don't have anything to regret. (at the very least, make sure it's a good picture!)

ANYWAY. gone for awhile on this one, i realize. if you liked it, let me know. if you didn't, don't :) you guys are dolls.

xoxo daisy ;)


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